Mark Urman, Indie Film Mainstay, Dies At 66

Mark Urman, a prominent figure in the independent film business and, over the past decade, the head of Paladin Film, has died at age 66.

Word circulated today, especially given the many film and media professionals who live (as did Urman) in Montclair, N.J. We have been hearing all day that the cause of death was cancer. Urman’s family has so far declined to make a statement. We will update all this as more information comes in.

Early in his career, Urman worked in publicity for Columbia Pictures and United Artists. Following that major-studio chapter, he moved to PR firm Dennis Davidson Associates in the 1980s, where he got some of his first tastes of championing specialty film titles, spearheading several publicity campaigns for Miramax and other indie outfits. (He told a few memorable tales about Bob and Harvey Weinstein in Peter Biskind’s 2004 book Down and Dirty Pictures.)

Urman would go on to become a noted tastemaker in the sector, serving as distribution chief at Lionsgate in the era when it was putting out awards bait like Gods and Monsters and Shadow of the Vampire. He also executive produced films including Monster’s Ball before moving on to head theatrical for ThinkFilm. In the 2000s, Think put out a mix of critically and commercially successful titles like Murderball, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,and Half Nelson, the last of which netted a young Ryan Gosling his first Oscar nomination in a out-of-left-field shocker. The company also released Oscar-winning documentaries Taxi to the Dark Side and Born Into Brothels.

In 2009, Urman founded Paladin, whose releases have included Shana Feste’s The Greatest, Tom Shadyac documentary I Am and, in a joint release with Unison, Taika Waititi’s vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows. A few weeks ago, Paladin announced the acquisition of Billboard, a film by Zeke Zelker to be released in the spring. The company also recently backed the timely sexual harassment drama Submission, starring Stanley Tucci.

Urman is survived by his wife, Deborah Davis, an author of books including Gilded: How Newport Became America’s Richest Resort and Party of the Century about Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball.