Jack Valenti(1921-2007)
- Actor
Texas born, Harvard educated, Jack Valenti has led several lives; a
wartime bomber pilot, advertising agency founder, political consultant,
White House Special Assistant, movie industry leader. In his current
role as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture
Association of America, Valenti has presided over a worldwide sea
change in the industry, which has radically changed the landscape of
the American film and television industry here and abroad. It is
Valenti's duty and challenge to lead the U.S. film and TV industry's
confrontation with these global dangers and opportunities. Born in
Houston, Texas, Valenti was the youngest (age 15) high school graduate
in the city. He began work a a 16-year-old office boy with the Humble
Oil Company (now Exxon). As a young pilot in the Army Air Corps in
World War II, Lieutenant Valenti flew 51 combat missions as the
pilot-commander of a B-25 attack bomber with the 12th Air Force in
Italy. He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air
Medal with four clusters, the Distinguished Unit Citation with one
cluster, the European Theater Ribbon with four battle stars. He has a
B.A. from the University of Houston (doing all his undergraduate work
at night, working during the day). He graduated from Harvard with an
M.B.A. In 1952, he co-founded the advertising/political consulting
agency of Weekley & Valenti. In 1955, he met the man who would have the
largest impact on his life, the then Majority Leader of the U.S.
Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson. Valenti's agency was in charge of the press during the
visit of President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Johnson to Texas. Valenti
was in the motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Within hours of
the murder of John F. Kennedy, Valenti was on Air Force One flying back to
Washington, the first newly hired special assistant to the new
President. On June 1, 1966, Valenti resigned his White House post to
become only the third man in MPAA history to become its leader. Valenti
has written four books, three non-fiction, The Bitter Taste Of Glory
(World Publishing); A Very Human President (W. W. Norton Co.); Speak Up
With Confidence (Wm. Morrow Co.); his newest book is a political novel,
Protect Aand Defend (Doubleday, 1992). He has written numerous essays
for the New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,
Reader's Digest, Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, Cox newspapers and other
publications. France awarded him its highly prized Legion d'Honneur,
the French Legion of Honor. He has been awarded his own Star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. He and his wife, Mary Margaret Valenti, lived in Washington,
though he spent half his time in Los Angeles. They had three children,
Courtenay Valenti, John Valenti and Alexandra Valenti. He died from complications of a stroke in
April 2007.
