Irving Paul Lazar

Born Samuel Lazar to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from Fordham University and Brooklyn Law School in 1931.[1][2] While practicing bankruptcy law during the early 1930s, he negotiated a business deal for a vaudeville performer Ted Lewis, and realized the income potential for acting as an agent.[1]

Lazar moved to Hollywood in 1936 but maintained a presence in New York until after World War II when he moved to Los Angeles permanently.[1] After putting together three major deals for Humphrey Bogart in a single day, he was dubbed "Swifty" by Bogart,[1] a nickname he disliked.

In addition to Bogart, Lazar became the agent representing other celebrities, including Lauren Bacall, Truman Capote, Cher, Joan Collins, Noël Coward, Ira Gershwin, Cary Grant, Moss Hart, Ernest Hemingway, Gene Kelly, Madonna, Walter Matthau, Larry McMurtry, Vladimir Nabokov, Clifford Odets, Cole Porter, William Saroyan, Irwin Shaw, President Richard Nixon and Tennessee Williams. Lazar's power became such that he could negotiate a deal for someone who was not even his client and then collect a fee from that person's agent.[1] Oscar Levant said of Lazar, "Everybody who matters has two agents: his own and Irving Lazar." [1]

During World War II, Lazar, with Benjamin Landis, suggested to the U.S. Army Air Forces that it produce a play to encourage enlistment and to raise funds for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. The Air Forces commanding general, Henry H. Arnold, agreed and the play Winged Victory was written by Moss Hart and produced by Hart and Lazar. It was a huge success, playing on Broadway and on tour around the U.S. for over a million people. A film version was produced during the same period.

During the 1950s Lazar expanded from Hollywood deal-making to doing book publishing deals.[1]

Lazar was an executive producer (with Bernie Brillstein) of John G. Avildsen's Neighbors (1981), starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and he was an associate producer on two television miniseries, The Thorn Birds (1983) and Robert Kennedy & His Times (1985).

In 1988, a party was thrown for Lazar at a nightclub where Chazz Palminteri, who was then a struggling actor, was working as a bouncer. Lazar tried to enter and was stopped by Palminteri who didn't know him. Lazar got him fired, which led the broke (and now out of work) actor to write something for himself to star in since he wasn't being offered anything, and he was inspired to write A Bronx Tale.[3]

Lazar died in 1993, aged 86, from complications stemming from diabetes, which had cut off circulation to his feet. Doctors wanted to amputate, but Lazar, who was being treated at home via peritoneal dialysis, refused. This refusal hastened Lazar's death.[4] He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles[5] next to his wife, Mary Van Nuys, who had died in January that same year from liver cancer.

At the time of his death, Lazar was working on his autobiography, Swifty: My Life and Good Times, which was completed by Annette Tapert and published by Simon & Schuster in 1995.[6] Simon & Schuster editor-in-chief Michael Korda published a book about Lazar entitled Another Life: A Memoir of Other People in 1999, he wrote: "The person in question was standing on the other side of the pool, an incongruous, diminutive figure among all the half-naked, oiled, and bronzed bodies. He was totally bald, and his face--what could be seen of it below huge, glittering gold-rimmed Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses--was tanned, like his pate, to the color of a well-cared-for crocodile handbag. He was wearing tiny white shoes, a blue blazer with gold buttons, and white trousers pressed so perfectly, despite the heat, that he looked like a shiny, expensive beach toy that had just been unpacked by some lucky child. He was shouting into a telephone."[1]

Swifty Lazar appears as a character in Peter Morgan's stage play Frost/Nixon, first staged at the Donmar Warehouse, London on August 10, 2006 and played by actor Kerry Shale. In the play, Lazar negotiates a deal with David Frost on behalf of President Richard Nixon for Frost to interview Nixon. The play is closely based on real-life events. He was also portrayed by Toby Jones in the 2008 film version of Frost/Nixon. Swifty Lazar also appeared, thinly disguised as Irving "Sneaky" LaSalle, in George Axelrod's 1956 take on Dr. Faustus, the play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? where Sneaky as an agent, will get his clients absolutely anything they want for 10% of their soul. The Lazar role was played on Broadway by Martin Gable. Lazar was parodied on The Muppet Show as Fozzie Bear's agent, Irving Bizarre, who was so short that he appeared only as a top hat atop a pair of shoes.

Korda, Michael (1999). Another Life: A Memoir of Other People. United States: Random House. pp. 179–196. ISBN 0-679-45659-7.

• The New Yorker: Michael Korda's "The King of the Deal" (March 29, 1993)
• Irving Paul Lazar at IMDb