Roger Mayer, NFPF Chair, to Receive Hersholt Humanitarian Award at 77th Academy Awards®
Press release courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Contact: John Pavlik (310-247-3000)
Beverly Hills, CA (December 16, 2004)—Roger Mayer, president of Turner Entertainment Co., has been voted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy President Frank Pierson announced today. The award, an Oscar® statuette, will be presented to Mayer during the 77th Academy Awards Presentation on February 27.
The Hersholt Award is given to an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.
"The board was persuaded in large measure by Roger's long-time efforts on behalf of the Motion Picture and Television Fund as well as his efforts in film preservation," Pierson said. "Throughout a more than half-century-long career in the motion picture industry Roger has been a fixture on the boards of a wide variety of charitable organizations. He has always given his time to support the needs of his industry."
Mayer has served the Motion Picture and Television Fund for over 25 years, eight of them as chair of its Board of Trustees. (One of the organizers of the MPTF, which originally was called the Motion Picture Relief Fund, was Jean Hersholt, who served as its president and for whom the award Mayer will receive is named.)
Mayer is the founding chair of the board of directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation, created by Congress in 1996 at the recommendation of the Library of Congress to preserve "orphan films," which have no studio or other entity with an economic motive to save them.
Mayer is a member of the National Film Preservation Board, which advises the Librarian of Congress concerning films to be added to the National Film Registry and their preservation at the Library of Congress. He has been honored for his work in film preservation by the Hollywood Film Festival, New York's "Career Transition for Dancers," the Telluride Film Festival, New York's Anthology Film Archives, the International Documentary Association and Yale University.
He has been active with the Permanent Charities Committee of the Entertainment Industry (now known as the Entertainment Industry Foundation), the United Jewish Welfare Fund and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Silent Film Gala.
A graduate of Yale Law School , Mayer started in the industry in 1952 as a lawyer with Columbia Pictures, later becoming a studio executive there. He joined MGM in 1961 as assistant general manager of the studio, ultimately becoming senior vice president of administration for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., and president of MGM Laboratories, an association that spanned 25 years.
Mayer has been president and chief operating officer of Turner Entertainment Co. since 1986.
A former governor of the Academy, Mayer served for three three-year terms, also serving as an officer of the Academy for two years during that period.
The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award will be presented along with Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2004 on Sunday, February 27, 2005 , at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland® and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. (PST) with a half-hour arrival segment.
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