Rowland Perkins (July 10, 1934 – August 8, 2018) was an American talent agent. He was a co-founder and the founding president of the

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

(CAA).

Early life

Rowland Perkins was born on July 10, 1934 in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from

Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on B ...

. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

for two years and attended the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

in Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration.

Career

Perkins began his career at the

William Morris Agency The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent a ...

(WMA). Perkins co-founded

with

Michael Ovitz Michael Steven Ovitz (born December 14, 1946) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was a talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. Ovitz later served as preside ...

Ronald Meyer Ronald Meyer (born September 25, 1944) is an American entertainment executive and former talent agent. He co-founded Creative Artists Agency in 1975, and served as the President and Chief Operating Officer at Universal Studios Inc. from 1995-2013 ...

, William Haber and Michael S. Rosenfeld in 1975. He was its founding president. Perkins negotiated television productions for George Stevens Jr. He retired from CAA in 1993. In 1995, Perkins founded the production company Double Eagle Entertainment. He served on the board of the

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

Personal life and death

In 1960, Perkins married Diane Carol Smith whom he had met while they both attended UCLA. They had three daughters, Kamala, Dahra and Alexandra. They divorced in 1976. Perkins later married Sallie James Perkins, an actress, comedian and opera singer. His wife Sallie predeceased him in 2017. He died of pneumonia on August 8, 2018 in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Rowland 1934 births 2018 deaths Beverly Hills High School alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Businesspeople from Los Angeles American company founders 20th-century American businesspeople