Lew Grade(1906-1998)

Sir Lew (later Lord) Grade, the English entertainment impresario whom critics loved to disparage as "Sir Low Grade," was born Louis Winogradsky on December 25, 1906, in Tokmak, Ukraine, in the former Russian Empire. His parents, Olga and Isaac, who were Jewish, emigrated to England in 1912 to escape the pogroms of their native land. They settled in London's East End, where Isaac managed a movie theatre. Lew and his two brothers, Leslie and Bernard (who later took the name Bernard Delfont), attended the Rochelle Street School in Shoreditch. After his formal education ended, he became an agent for a clothing firm at the age of 15 but soon went into business for himself. His fate was changed when he won a Charleston competition at the Albert Hall in 1926. He took the name Grade (which was also adopted by his brother Leslie) when he became a professional dancer, and as Lew Grade, the World Charleston Champion of 1926, he made his way into show business.

Lew Grade and his brother Leslie Grade founded a talent agency in 1933 that grew into the largest in the UK. With partner Joe Collins, father of Joan and Jackie Collins, the agency eventually represented some of the biggest and most prestigious stars in British show business, including Sir Ralph Richardson and Lord Laurence Olivier. His brother Bernard (later Lord Delfont) also made his way into show business, later becoming the head of the music industry behemoth EMI. (Lord Grade's own interests included Pye Records.)

Entering television, Grade's production company ITC Entertainment was responsible for the iconic 1960s British TV series The Saint (1962) and The Prisoner (1967). In 1962 he acquired the independent production company AP Films, which produced the popular children's marionette adventure series Thunderbirds (1965), among others. AP Films also produced three feature films and the live-action sci-fi series Space: 1999 (1975).

As a movie producer, Grade helped finance the big-screen incarnation of The Muppet Show (1976), for which he was immortalized by Jim Henson, who made a Muppet in his image, Dr Bunsen Honeydew. Henson also used Grade for the character of movie mogul Lew Lord (played by Orson Welles) in The Muppet Movie (1979).

Grade was the force behind the private British TV broadcasting network ATV, which he wanted to rival the BBC. The network featured extravagant 'quality' productions such as a live broadcast of Tosca (1988) from La Scala starring Maria Callas, which took up an entire evening's broadcast time. He produced director Franco Zeffirelli's award-winning TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977), which provided a financial windfall when it was resold to the American market. The miniseries garnered a then-record $12 million licensing fee (approximately $39 million in 2005 when adjusted for inflation). On the downside, Grade's high-budget, 'all-star' film adaptation of Clive Cussler's bestseller Raise the Titanic (1980) proved to be a monumental flop. A self-deprecating Grade remarked about laying this big egg, "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic." Subsequent flops led Grade to abandon motion picture production.

Grade was knighted in 1969 for his services towards promoting international trade and was made a life peer (a baron) in 1976, both times under Harold Wilson's Labour Government. He was married to Kathleen Moody for 56 years, until his death. Lew and Kathleen adopted a son, Paul Dancer. Of his wife, Grade said, graciously, "Marriage was the best business deal I ever made. After that, 'Jesus of Nazareth' and 'The Muppets.'"

His nephew, Michael Grade, was the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors from 1984 to 1986. Lord Grade died on December 13, 1998. He was 91 years old.