Literary agent kept door open
Michael Hamilburg, a Beverly Hills agent who helped shepherd writing by Vincent Bugliosi, Jim Morrison, Paul Schrader, Jackie Robinson and others into film and print, died Jan. 1 of complications from Parkinson’s disease, said Gregory Jackson, family spokesman and longtime friend. He was 82.
Hamilburg, of Brentwood, ran the Mitchell J. Hamilburg Agency, a company his father started in the 1930s with a diverse client list that included Gene Autry, Deanna Durbin and Captain Kangaroo — though the elder Hamilburg once told the Times that he refused to represent Bugliosi’s subject, Charles Manson, who was trying to peddle a book with a co-writer.
Like his father, the younger Hamilburg worked on film projects. They included “Billionaire Boys Club,” “Taxi Driver” and “Shaft,” and he co-produced Sydney Pollack’s “The Yakuza.” But his specialty was books. “He just had manuscripts spilling out of everywhere,” said Jackson, who called Hamilburg “an unagent agent.”
Michael J. Hamilburg was born June 15, 1933, in Los Angeles. He attended University High and Menlo College and served in the Navy. He worked mostly alone and stood out for his open-door policy to unknown writers, The Times wrote in 1999. “I love the business, that’s the whole thing,” he told The Times.
He survived by wife Susan Hamilburg, and daughters Georgia Hamilburg of Brentwood and Lucy Hamilburg of San Francisco.