Anyone who can hold ONE job for 38 years gets my respect. But to be the top dog at an organization as controversial as the MPAA – Motion Picture Association of America – for that long has GOT to be a tough job.
Jack Valenti, the longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America, died Thursday of complications from a stroke he suffered in March, his family announced. He was 85.
He died in Washington, less than a month after being hospitalized for a stroke, the MPAA announced Thursday evening.
Valenti spent 38 years as president of the U.S. movie industry’s trade association, serving as its top lobbyist and spokesman until his retirement in 2004.
The guy was central to the 1968 creation of the modern MPAA move-ratings system — now G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17. (In the US)
As a parent I have more respect than ever for the ratings system instituted on movies, and though not a perfect system, it is far better than censorship. Movies get to be whatever they want to be, and they just stick a warning label on them so you know what you are getting yourself into.
Despite the traditional distaste people get when the MPAA is mentioned, there is a lot of good coming out of it too. This guy was a part of a LOT of it. Good and bad.
At least now he gets to rest.
