Michael Hamilburg, literary agent, was 82

Michael Hamilburg was the book agent for Jim Morrison, Jackie Robinson, Vincent Bugliosi and many other writers — as well as a number of Los Angeles journalists through the years. Hamilburg died Jan. 1 of Parkinson's complications, per an LA Times obit. He took over the agency started by his father, who while agreeing to handle Bugliosi refused to represent the former prosecutor's most-infamous target, 1960s cult leader and killer Charles Manson.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

His father founded the Mitchell J. Hamilburg Agency with clients that including Gene Autry, Deanna Durbin and Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo).

Hamilburg kept the agency’s name after his father died and built its literary division to include such diverse clients as The Doors’ Jim Morrison (poetry), writer-director Paul Schrader, baseball legend Jackie Robinson, Sens. George Mitchell and Edmund Muskie, actor Russell Means, White House Press Secretary George Reedy, columnist Jack Anderson, attorney Vincent Bugliosi and his cousin, novelist Clifford Irving.

His wife noted that Hamilburg also put together film projects that included Von Ryan’s Express (1965), Shaft (1971) and The Yakuza (1974), on which he also served as an associate producer, and the 1987 telefilm Billionaire Boys Club.

Another of his clients was Mel Weinberg, whose escapades as a swindler turned informant served as the basis for the David O. Russell film American Hustle (2013). (Weinberg served as a technical consultant on the pic.)