Don Mirisch, RIP

Animation exec Jonathan Dern told me about this sad event a couple of days ago:

Veteran business affairs executive Donald I. Mirisch, who senior executive positions at Fox Studios, Universal Studios, Embassy Home Entertainment, Hanna-Barbera Productions and MGM over the course of his career, died of brain cancer at his home on July 26. He was 67.

At MGM, where he served as executive vice president of MGM Animation, Mirisch re-established the storied animation unit that had been shuttered after the departure of Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna in the late ’50s. Taking charge of all production and operations of the revitalized division, he exec produced “All Dogs Go to Heaven 2,” “The Pebble and the Penguin,” “James Bond, Jr.,” “The Pink Panther” and “Babes in Toyland.”

Met Don a few times at M-G-M. Sixty-seven is way too young to exit, but sometimes God lays out plans we wouldn't make ourselves.