Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert was an American television producer.

Gilbert joined the independent production company Talent Associates in 1963. Producer and talk show host David Susskind had founded Talent Associates in the 1950s, and he was eventually joined by Gilbert, Daniel Melnick and Leonard Stern as partners.

Gilbert served as executive in charge of production on several shows, including Get Smart, the spy spoof that was created in the mid-1960s by two young writers, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. It premiered on NBC in 1965, ran five seasons and became a television classic.

Talent Associates produced feature films, including Straw Dogs (with Dustin Hoffman), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (with Ellen Burstyn), and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (with Paul Newman). Miniseries produced by the firm include The Glass Menagerie (with Katharine Hepburn), Eleanor and Franklin (with Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann), and Blind Ambition (with Martin Sheen), based on the book by John Dean, who served as White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon. Gilbert and Susskind sold Talent Associates to Time Inc. in 1977, when it became Time Life Films.

Later in his career, Gilbert produced several TV movies with Hill/Mandelker Productions and Leonard Hill Films, including 1985’s The Long Hot Summer (with Don Johnson and Cybill Shepherd). It was nominated for two Emmys including for Best Miniseries.

Gilbert’s last project was 2008’s The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (with Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans), a feature film he produced and financed with his son, Brad Gilbert.

Gilbert died December 4, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. He was 87.