Film producer and former head of Theatre Development Fund figure Henry Guettel dies at 85

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Henry Guettel, a film executive with both 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures as well as a former head of the Theatre Development Fund, died Monday of pneumonia in Southampton, N.Y., according to his wife, Mary Rodgers Guettel. He was 85.

Guettel had been a vice-president at 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures before leading the Fund, the not-for-profit performing arts service organization best known for operating the TKTS Booths. He was executive director for a decade beginning in 1982.

He was a stage manager for “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” in 1950 and went on to helped produce such Broadway shows as “Sugar Babies” and “Romulus.” Guettel also produced national tours of Broadway shows in the 1960s including, “The Sound of Music,” ”The Best Man” and “Camelot.”

In addition to his wife, who is composer Richard Rodgers’ older daughter, Guettel is survived by his children, “The Light in the Piazza” composer Adam Guettel and Alec Guettel, his stepchildren Tod Beaty, Kim Beaty, and Nina Beaty and six grandchildren.