George Christy obit

George Christy, Veteran Hollywood Columnist, Dies at 93

George Christy, a gossip and party columnist who wrote for The Hollywood Reporter for more than 26 years before leaving amid controversy in 2001, has died. He was 93. 

He was not on the list.

George Christy, a gossip and party columnist who wrote for The Hollywood Reporter for more than 26 years before leaving amid controversy in 2001, has died. He was 93.

Christy died Tuesday night of heart failure at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, his friend, producer-director Barry Avrich, said.

“George Christy was a combination of Louella Parsons, Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell in the old Hollywood style of reporting,” Avrich noted. “The only difference that distinguished George from his predecessors was that while he looked for scoops, he never was interested in scandal or salacious exposés.”

Most recently, Christy wrote a column for the Beverly Hills Courier, a free weekly newspaper, from 2006-19.

Christy was suspended from THR in May 2001 amid a SAG investigation into whether he schemed to improperly receive health benefits for performing in films in which he did not appear. He also was accused of accepting lavish gifts and free office space from those he wrote about favorably in his column, “The Great Life.” He resigned six months later.

In April 2001, THR editor Anita M. Busch, labor reporter David Robb and executive film editor Beth Laski all quit after editor in chief and publisher Robert J. Dowling refused to run a story by Robb detailing Christy’s allegedly unethical activities.

THR eventually did print a story that Christy was under investigation by the actors union.

Christy, who did show up in such films as Die Hard (1988) and Seven (1995), hosted a star-packed lunch at the Toronto International Film Festival for three decades until that practice at the Four Seasons came to an end in 2013.

“I hope Spago and The Ivy, two Hollywood restaurants he put on the map, are dimming their lights in his memory,” Avrich said.