Howard Bragman, a beloved Hollywood publicist who specialised in disaster relations and whose shoppers included Monica Lewinsky, Cameron Diaz, Ricki Lake, Sharon Osbourne and Chaz Bono, has died at his residence in Los Angeles of leukemia. He was 66.
Bragman, who died Saturday, had been recognized with leukemia simply 10 days in the past and was promptly hospitalized, his household mentioned.
A local of Flint, Mich., the place he mentioned he all the time felt like a Martian as a “fats, Jewish, homosexual child,” Bragman received his begin in public relations in Chicago, working with shoppers resembling Anheuser-Busch.
Finally he made his method to Los Angeles and based his personal agency, Bragman Nyman Cafarelli (BNC), in 1989. He grew to become often called a go-to for serving to celebrities come out publicly, together with “Household Ties” star Meredith Baxter, nation singer Chely Wright, basketball gamers John Amaechi and Sheryl Swoopes and soccer participant Michael Sam.
“Howard Bragman was an trade chief who masterfully used the ability of the press to create optimistic change and visibility for LGBTQ folks,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis mentioned in a press release. “All through his lengthy profession, he labored with many LGBTQ notables to make sure their popping out tales had been handled with dignity and created influence for all the group. His personal visibility as an out government, paired with a trademark humor and daring strategy to public relations, made unforgettable marks.”
BNC was acquired in 2001 by Weber Shandwick Worldwide, which later merged it with PMK to create PMK-BNC. Bragman based the agency Fifteen Minutes in 2005 and, later, La Brea Media.
He wrote an recommendation e-book titled “The place’s My Fifteen Minutes,” weaving in amusing anecdotes of a bygone Hollywood and relating that to the movie star, media and viewers panorama of at the moment. He suggested that “all press shouldn’t be good press” and declared that whoever mentioned so is “an fool.”
Along with being an oft-quoted professional on movie star crises, Bragman generally penned articles himself, in publications from Playboy to the Los Angeles Instances, and appeared on actuality exhibits together with “The Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills” and as a visitor choose on the primary season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Bragman’s affect on the trade was wide-spanning. He was an adjunct professor of public relations at USC, developed a media coaching handbook for younger actors in Nickelodeon tv exhibits and movies, and skilled a whole lot of execs exterior of Hollywood, from elected officers and attorneys to CEOs. He was a passionate activist for LGBTQ rights and Jewish causes.
In 2021, he donated $1 million to determine the Howard Bragman Coming Out Fund on the College of Michigan, his alma mater, on the fiftieth anniversary of the college’s Spectrum Middle, an LGBTQ help useful resource.
“I wish to guarantee that different folks get that very same entry that I had; life-changing, life-saving entry,” he advised the college’s paper on the time. “I don’t care how liberal the college is. I don’t care how accepting and loving your mother and father are. I don’t care how ‘woke’ the instances are. Popping out is that this most private of journeys, and it’s a difficult journey.”
Bragman is survived by his husband, Mike Maimone, and his brother, Alan.
