Edie Landau

Landau was born to a Jewish family and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Rose and Harry Rudolph (former president of the Eastern Basketball League)[5][6] and sister to Mendy Rudolph (2007 inductee to the Basketball Hall of Fame).[7] She received her B.A. in Education from Wilkes University.[8] In 1948, Landau moved to New York City, where she served as production coordinator for Phillips H. Lord,[9] on such popular radio shows as Gangbusters and Mr. District Attorney, among others.[10]

In 1953, Landau joined (and later married) Ely Landau in his start-up company National Telefilm Associates[11] which owned television station WNTA Channel 13 in NYC, considered the "fourth TV network" in the early days of television.[12] Until 1961, Edie Landau served as the company's Executive Vice President,[13][14] overseeing the station's original programming including the anthology drama series The Play of the Week,[15] The Mike Wallace Show, The David Susskind Show,[16] Open End, The Bishop Sheen Show, and One Night Stand, among others.[17]

In 1962, the Landaus produced Long Day's Journey Into Night,[18] an adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play directed by Sidney Lumet,[19] which won Best Actor awards for all its leading actors at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival,[20] as well as an Academy Award nomination for Katharine Hepburn as Best Actress.[21] This was followed in 1964 by The Pawnbroker[22][23][24] (Golden Globe Award winner and Academy Award nomination for Rod Steiger as Best Actor), The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969) also with Hepburn,[25] and the documentary King: a Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis (1970).[26][27] The film about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. played in 663 theaters as a one-night benefit for King's charities,[28] was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature,[29] and in 1999 was added to the National Film Registry.[30]

In 1973, the Landaus launched the American Film Theatre,[31][32] bringing two seasons of outstanding stage plays to the motion picture screen as part of a subscription series.[33] The fourteen movies of the American Film Theatre included Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance (the Landaus' third collaboration with Katharine Hepburn), O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, Pinter's The Homecoming, and Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth (with a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for Maximilian Schell).[31]

From the late 1970s through the 1980s, Landau produced such films as Hopscotch (with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson),[34][35] Beatlemania, Chaim Potok's The Chosen,[36][37][38] Robert Ludlum’s The Holcroft Covenant (with Michael Caine),[39] in addition to a number of award-winning productions for HBO, including The Deadly Game (with George Segal and Robert Morley),[40] Separate Tables (with Alan Bates and Julie Christie),[41][42] Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson (with Laurence Olivier and Jackie Gleason)[43] and The Christmas Wife (with Jason Robards and Julie Harris).[44][45][46]

In 1982, while continuing her producing career, Landau secured a secured a Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, and became a member of the State Bar of California.[47]

In 1989, Landau also began operating Nannies Unlimited Agency, an exclusive Beverly Hills placement service with clientele including numerous celebrities of the entertainment world.[48][49][50] In 2014, she published an original volume of poems, Smiles for Seniors: And Anyone Else Who Can Poke Fun at Themselves.[51]

In addition to the two young sons her husband Ely A. Landau brought to the marriage (Neil and Les Landau), the Landaus had three children together: Jon Landau (producer of such films as Titanic and Avatar),[52] Tina Landau (renowned theater writer and director),[53] and Kathy Landau (Executive Director of Symphony Space in New York City).[54]