Jeff Wald might not ring the bel to many many Michael Jackson fans but he was responsible for Michael Jackson Opus to come to life. He stroke the deal with Michael before the King of Pop past away and the Estate took over the project with Wald.
As you all know, Opus has a chapter written by Wade Robson and when the allegations came to light, Wald took publicly the defence of the King of Pop.
Wald’s daughter, Traci Wald, confirmed his passing:
“To the very end, he was laughing and fighting for the life he lived with epic proportions in every way. He was surrounded by the family he loved so much and the music that was the soundtrack to his life of eternal optimism. We are heartbroken by the loss of our husband, father, friend and fierce advocate for women’s rights and justice for all.”
Jeff S. Wald has been an innovative power in the entertainment business since 1964. He is a product of the famous William Morris Agency mailroom, which produced David Geffen, Barry Diller, Jerry Weintraub, Ron Meyer, Bernie Brillstein and many others.
In 1967 Wald moved to Chicago and became the talent buyer for Mister Kelly’s, The London House, and the Happy Medium.
In 1968 Jeff moved to Los Angeles under the auspices of Bill Cosby to work at building a management company for Campbell, Silver Cosby. The start up company signed an unknown Tiny Tim, as well as the Deep Purple and The Turtles.
In late 1969 after Cosby closed his company Wald and Ron DeBlasio formed their own company and added George Carlin to their roster. Wald was responsible for talking George into changing his image and signed George to Flip Wilson’s Little David record label. George’s album was the label’s first platinum album.
In 1971 Jeff obtained a record deal with Capitol Records for his wife Helen Reddy. They had married in 1966 and it took five years to get her a record deal.
Wald decided to go out on his own and devote all his time to building Helen Reddy’s career. During most of the seventies she was one of the biggest selling female artists of the seventies winning a Grammy for her iconic anthem I Am Woman one of her 14 hits and her first of four number ones.
Starting in 1975 Wald built his management company and over the years his clients included Oscar Brown Junior, Miles Davis, Marvin Gay, Sylvester Stallone, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerrit, James Brolin, Chicago, Donna Summer, Crosby Stills and Nash, Flip Wilson, Tower Of Power, Philip Charles Mackenzie, Robert Walden, Charles Fleischer, Robert Wohl, Dave Mason, Paul Rodriguez, Clint Black, Gary Morris, Roseanne Barr, Mike Tyson and many others.
In 1986 Wald became President of Barris Industries, which then became Guber Peters. Sony bought the company and Wald stayed on until 1991.
Wald has produced 2000 hours of television, which included award-winning movies of the week, mini series, game shows, variety specials, scripted one-hour dramas and talk shows. These included Latin Nights for ABC, Helen Reddy Specials for NBC and ABC, Donna Summer specials, five years of the CBS James Brolin starrer Pensacola Wings of Gold. In addition four years of the Paul Rodriguez talk show for Univision, Four Kenny Rogers two hour specials for ABC, and a award winning Mike Tyson Special. A highly rated Elvis special for ABC as well as two years of King World’s Roseanne talk show. Wald was an Executive Producer of The Contender along with Mark Burnett, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Sylvester Stallone, which ran for four years. Wald also produced a feature film for Orion, “Opposing Force and produced “2 Days In The Valley” for Rhysher/MGM Ent., marking Charlize Theron’s acting debut. He is also responsible for giving opportunities early in their career to Jamie Fox, Ice-T, Will Smith, Billy Crystal, Barry Manilow, Gary Shandling and others.
Wald has been active in many charities and politics. Jeff was a Jerry Brown delegate to the 1976 Democratic convention and a Kennedy delegate in 1980. Wald was appointed to a four-year term by Jimmy Carter to serve on the board of the USO. Jerry Brown appointed him to the Board of Economic Development for the State of California. Wald also served 6 years as a Mayor Bradley appointee to the Organizing Committee for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Jeff has served on the Board of Governors of Cedars Sinai Hospital, USC and the Betty Ford Center. Wald was an active fundraiser for Jerry Brown as Attorney General of California as well as his recent victory as Governor.
In 1997, Jeff and Irving Azoff formed AzoffWald to promote George Foreman’s last two fights as well as being a force in separating Mike Tyson from Don King. Wald also has promoted ex middleweight champion Sergio Mora, Peter Manfredo, Steve Forbes, Sakio Bika and K9 Bundrage all of whom have won championship belts.
Jeff produced a musical version of the iconic movie Casablanca, called ‘Casablanca The Dance’ which had its debut in Beijing in front of the President of China as well as most of the Government. While in China Jeff discovered an exciting show called Shangri-La. He brought 75 dancers and singers to the United States and played in Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The Chinese had no concept of unions, or overtime and Wald ‘lost his ass’ and consequently sent the cast and crew back to China!
Wald was CEO of Aria Multimedia Entertainment and Creston Enterprises, whose company has produced and published 2 coffee table books the first being THE OFFICIAL MICHAEL JACKSON BOOK and of the well-reviewed HIP HOP A CULTURAL ODYSSEY both edited and created by Jeff’s son Jordan Sommers and photo edited by his wife Deborah.
All our condolences to his family and friends and thank you Jeff for this amazing piece of art that is Opus.
Condolences.
After he posted that comment about not believing Wade on Twitter I started following Jeff on that platform. This is another sad loss of an MJ defender. RIP.