Gary Cosay, Co-Founder of United Talent Agency, Dies at 92

Gary Cosay, a co-founder of United Talent Agency who represented the writers behind some of the most durable sitcoms of the 1980s and '90s, died Oct. 5 at his home in Carmel, Calif. He was 92.

Cosay had not been active at the agency for some years. He remained a mentor to several current UTA partners, and his career tracked the rise of the modern showrunner in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"Gary Cosay was a true original whose integrity, and extraordinary contributions to the entertainment industry left a lasting mark on everyone who had the privilege of knowing him," said Jay Sures, partner and vice chairman of UTA. "As one of the original founders of UTA, he was a fierce advocate for representing writers with vigor and passion and at the same time teaching younger agents the secret sauce for success. All of us at UTA will miss him dearly."

What did Cosay represent?

His client roster included the writer-producers behind Fox's "Married … with Children" and ABC's "The Wonder Years," "Growing Pains" and "The Drew Carey Show," among many others. His dealmaking guided clients and younger agents toward hits that generated millions of dollars in syndication and through lucrative packaging deals for talent agencies.

Cosay described the odds of the business in baseball terms. "Getting a show on the air is like hitting a single," he told Variety in 1997. "Getting a show on the air that stays on the air is like hitting a home run."

How did UTA come together?

Cosay began in the late 1960s as an assistant at the William Morris Agency in New York. He rose through the ranks, then moved west to join Creative Management Associates in 1973. He left after two years to form Cosay, Werner & Associates.

The mergers followed in quick succession:

• 1982: Cosay combined his firm with literary agents Jim Berkus and Robert Stein to form Berkus-Cosay-Stein.
• October 1983: That firm merged with Robert Littman Co. to form Leading Artists.
• Early 1991: Leading Artists merged with Bauer-Benedek to create UTA.

Cosay's stature in the television literary world established the young agency as a haven for promising and established writers.

In later years, Cosay devoted himself to animal rescue. He saved many dogs over the years, including greyhounds bred for racing and removed from abusive conditions.

He is survived by his wife, Healy. At Cosay's direction, there will be no public memorial service. The family asks that donations in his memory go to the SPCA of Monterey County.

What does this change for UTA? Nothing structural — Cosay left the agency's operations long ago — but the loss removes a living link to the founding generation that built the modern talent agency model around television writers.

By Marcus Bennett