Gareth Wigan was a British agent, producer and studio executive known for working on such films as George Lucas

George Lucas

George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

's Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...

. His early recognition of the power of the global entertainment market allowed his employer, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...

, to take advantage of films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film. An American-Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwanese co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen...

.

Life and career

Gareth Wigan was born in London on Dec. 2, 1931. After graduating from Oxford in 1952 with a B.A. Honours degree in English literature, he began his career as a literary agent in the London office of MCA. He eventually founded an agency with Richard Gregson, Gregson & Wigan. Among his clients was the British playwright Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper

Giles Stannus Cooper was an Anglo-Irish playwright and prolific radio dramatist, writing over sixty scripts for BBC radio and television. He was awarded the OBE in 1960 for "Services to Broadcasting"...

 whose story, "Unman, Wittering and Zigo

Unman, Wittering and Zigo

Unman, Wittering and Zigo is a 1958 radio play by the Anglo-Irish playwright Giles Cooper.-Plot:The play is a thriller set in a traditional boys boarding school where a senior form master has just been killed in a tragic accident. The main character is John Ebony, a teacher in his first job,...

" originally written for radio, was the first film Wigan produced, directed by John Mackenzie

John Mackenzie

John Mackenzie , known as "Frenzy Mackenzie", was a British film director. Born in Edinburgh, he worked in British film from the late 1960s, first as an assistant director and later as an independent director himself. He has been described by critics as "a solid and reliable filmmaker with.....

 and starring David Hemmings

David Hemmings

David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....

. Gregson and Wigan was sold to EMI in 1970 and Gareth Wigan subsequently moved to Los Angeles.

Over the course of a 40-year career, Wigan rose from talent agent

Talent agent

A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist in getting jobs...

, to producer to studio head. Film credits include Star Wars, Alien

Alien (film)

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...

, The Turning Point, Chariots of Fire

Chariots of Fire

Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British film. It tells the fact-based story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice....

, The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff is a 1983 American film adapted from Tom Wolfe's 1979 book The Right Stuff about the test pilots who were involved in high-speed aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base as well as those selected to be astronauts for Project Mercury, the United States' first attempt at manned...

, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and others.

He held numerous positions including Production Executive at 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

, co-Vice Chairman at Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, a co-founder at The Ladd Company

The Ladd Company

The Ladd Company is a film production and distribution company founded by Alan Ladd, Jr. in 1979, after ending his job as President of 20th Century Fox. Under Warner Bros...

, production consultant at Columbia and more.

Death

Gareth Wigan died at his Los Angeles home on February 13, 2010 at the age of 78. He is survived by his wife, Pat Newcomb, and four children. A dedication to Wigan appears at the end credits of the 2010 film Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass (film)

Kick-Ass is a 2010 superhero comedy film based on the comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The film was directed by Matthew Vaughn, who co-produced the film with actor Brad Pitt, and co-wrote the screenplay with Jane Goldman...

.