Mike Frankovich, the producer of films like ”Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice” and ”The Shootist,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles at the age of 82. He died of pneumonia and had Alzheimer`s disease, family members said.
Mr. Frankovich was born in Bisbee, Ariz., and grew up in Los Angeles. He was the adopted son of the comic actor Joe E. Brown.
He attended the University of California at Los Angeles, where as quarterback of the football team in 1932 he was part of a 93-yard touchdown pass play that still stands as a UCLA record.
After a short stint in professional baseball with the Hollywood All Stars, Mr. Frankovich became a technical adviser on sports films, held low-level production jobs in the film industry and in the late 1930s became a producer at Republic Pictures.
After serving as a pilot in the Army Air Corps in the Far East and Europe in World War II, he began producing films in Europe and showed a flair for coaxing Hollywood stars to go there to make independent films.
In 1955, Mr. Frankovich became managing director of Columbia Pictures in Britain. By the late `50s he was in charge of British and European production for the company.
In 1964 he moved back to Los Angeles as vice president in charge of production for Columbia.
In 1968, Mr. Frankovich became an independent producer at Columbia. His films included ”Cactus Flower,” ”There`s a Girl in My Soup,” ”Butterflies Are Free,” ”The Looking Glass War” and ”Forty Carats.”
