Obituaries - Oct. 26, 1999

* Benno C. Schmidt; Venture Capitalist

Benno C. Schmidt, 86, pioneering venture capitalist and head of the federal government’s war on cancer during the Nixon administration. Schmidt was born in Abilene, Texas, to a family of modest means. After his father’s death when he was 12, his mother supported the family by working as a secretary at the county welfare association. He attended the University of Texas law school, graduating at the top of his class, and later went to Harvard Law School. After serving in World War II as an Army colonel, he was hired by John Hay Whitney, one of the wealthiest men in the country, to work for his new investment firm. He became Whitney’s right-hand man, compiling an impressive record of deals, including one in the mid-1950s to stake Minute Maid orange juice. Later, he became a major backer of biotechnology ventures. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon chose him to lead his war on cancer as chairman of the President’s Cancer Panel. He also was a longtime chairman of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. One of his sons, Benno Jr., is a former president of Yale University. On Thursday in New York of heart failure.

* Meyer Mishkin; Theatrical Agent

Meyer Mishkin, 87, legendary theatrical agent credited with discovering such future superstars as Tyrone Power, Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter and Vivian Blaine. Brought up in New York’s Lower East Side, Mishkin dropped out of City College of New York during the Depression and got a job as errand boy at Fox Movietone News. Soon promoted to the talent department, he haunted small theaters, nightclubs and vaudeville shows in search of new movie heroes. Mishkin forced studios to take a second look at Power after the actor was rejected for eyebrows that were “too thick�; spotted Peck at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse while Peck was employed as a doorman at Radio City Music Hall; found Baxter in stock theater in Dennis, Mass.; and discovered the grossly overweight Blaine singing in a bar. He discovered Jeff Chandler, Kirk Douglas and Wendell Corey. Mishkin moved to Hollywood in 1948, worked briefly as talent agent for the old Huntington Hartford Theater and then established an independent talent agency. His roster over the years included Richard Dreyfuss, Lee Marvin, Tom Skerritt, Claude Akins, Strother Martin and Gary Busey. Known as an honest man and a tough negotiator, Mishkin railed at stock criticism of his clients. Dreyfuss, whom Mishkin first saw as a 15-year-old at Beverly Hills High School, was viewed as “too short, too Jewish, too ethnic� until Mishkin convinced studios otherwise. A longtime friend of director Henry Hathaway, Mishkin served as casting director for Hathaway’s films “The House on 92nd Street,� “13 Rue Madeleine� and “Call Northside 777.� On Oct. 9 in Los Angeles.

* H. Stuart Hughes; Author, Historian

H. Stuart Hughes, 83, UC San Diego professor and expert on European history who wrote a dozen books. A native New Yorker, Hughes earned his doctorate in history from Harvard and taught at Brown University before enlisting in the Army during World War II. Rising from private to lieutenant colonel, he became chief of research for Strategic Services in the Mediterranean and then Germany. Hughes later headed the State Department’s research division in Europe. Returning to Harvard to teach, Hughes ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts and chaired SANE, one of the first citizens’ organizations to call for worldwide nuclear disarmament. He taught history at UC San Diego from 1975 until his retirement in 1986. As an author, he was best known for his trilogy of books on the European intellectual scene in the late 19th and 20th centuries--�Consciousness and Society,� “The Obstructed Path� and “The Sea Change.� Among his other books was his 1990 autobiography, “Gentleman Rebel.� Hughes was a grandson of the late Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. On Thursday in La Jolla.

* Edwin J. Stevens; Radio Executive

Edwin J. Stevens, 74, former vice president and general manager of Los Angeles’ classical radio station KFAC-AM/FM. After growing up in Cleveland, Stevens served in Army Special Services during World War II and later toured Japan and Korea with a USO troupe as actor and stage manager. After the war, he became program director and hosted a children’s program on Cleveland radio station WERE. Stevens moved to Los Angeles in 1963 when Cleveland Broadcasting, parent company of his station there, acquired KFAC. As the Los Angeles station’s general manager, he was responsible for such innovations as the popular interview program “Luncheon at the Music Center.� Stevens was elected chairman of the Southern California Broadcasters Assn. After leaving KFAC in 1969, he founded an online computer services company for radio and television stations, and later the Pasadena-based company EMDA Inc., which helped the Pasadena Public Library develop its Public Access Information System. On Oct. 7 in Pasadena.

* Parker Cole; Helped Homeless Youths

Parker Cole, 77, who aided homeless young people and helped create the Starving Students moving company. Born in Chicago and reared on farms in Illinois and Georgia, Cole became Georgia’s youngest licensed pilot at age 11. He later was a Navy pilot during World War II and became a Japanese prisoner of war after his plane was shot down. Cole studied engineering at USC and settled in Laurel Canyon in a house he dubbed “Hodge Podge Lodge.� There he sheltered several homeless young people over the years. He taught youths to drive, fly, read and write and helped them to overcome drug habits. He unknowingly instigated the Starving Students moving company, which now employs more than 800 people, when he gave a small truck to Darryl Marshak and Ethan Margalith. Marshak, now a partner in Gold & Marshak talent agency, said Cole helped get the company going by repairing trucks, answering the telephone and even moving furniture. Marshak, like many of the youths Cole befriended, considered him a “second father [who] had a profound influence on me.� On Oct. 2 in West Los Angeles.

* Andras Hegedues; Hungarian Leader

Andras Hegedues, 76, former prime minister of Hungary who was a Warsaw Pact founder but later criticized the pro-Soviet regime. Born to a poor rural family in Szilsarkany, 75 miles west of Budapest, Hegedues joined the Communist movement as a teenager. He was named minister of agriculture in 1953 and two years later, at age 33, became Hungary’s youngest-ever premier. In 1955, he joined other Soviet Bloc heads of government in signing the treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, the Communist alliance organized after West Germany was admitted to NATO. A year later, Hegedues also signed a formal request for Soviet intervention to prevent Hungary from overthrowing Communist rule. He later fled to Moscow to study, returning to Hungary in 1958 but not to politics. Instead, he wrote articles and books on sociology. Although he remained a socialist, in 1968 Hegedues spoke out strongly against the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in which Soviet Union troops crushed a reform communist movement. Hegedues was expelled from the Hungarian Communist Party in 1973 as his criticism of the Hungarian government became more vocal. He became one of Hungary’s best-known dissidents with books published in many languages. On Saturday in Budapest, of heart problems.

* Maria Ley Piscator; Drama Teacher

Maria Ley Piscator, 101, theater arts teacher and director whose drama workshop helped train Marlon Brando and Harry Belafonte. After beginning her theatrical career as a dancer in Berlin and Paris, Piscator turned to choreography and helped stage several productions with Max Reinhardt, including “A Midsummer Night’s Eve.� She met theatrical director Erwin Piscator, who became her third husband, in 1936 while studying literature at the Sorbonne. They moved to New York and founded the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. In addition to Brando and Belafonte, their students also included Tony Randall and Anthony Franciosa. She also directed theatrical productions off Broadway and in Europe and wrote books including “The Piscator Experiment: The Political Theater� in 1967 and her autobiography, “Mirror People,� in 1989. On Oct. 14 in New York.