Andrea Eastman, the former head of casting at Paramount Pictures and longtime ICM agent, has died. She was 86 years old.
Eastman died Wednesday in her sleep at her home in Santa Barbara, according to a family spokesperson who shared the news in a statement to media.
Eastman first broke out as a casting director at Paramount Pictures during the new Hollywood movement of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Among her notable credits are discovering a young Ali McGraw when she was a model and casting her in 1969’s “Goodbye, Columbus.”
She also worked alongside producer Fred Roos and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola when casting Al Pacino to play Michael Corleone and James Caan for the role of Sonny in “The Godfather.” Her contributions to casting the classic film are now recognized in the archives of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Eastman left casting after “The Godfather” and went into the agency business. She became the first female “superagent” when she was promoted to senior vice president at International Creative Management, and also served as an agent at Creative Management Associates and International Famous Agency.
She repped clients such as Barbra Streisand, Burt Reynolds, Jaclyn Smith, Peter Boyle, Chevy Chase, Henry Winkler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Reeve, Katharine Ross, Christopher Plummer, James Brolin and Dustin Hoffman, to name a few. She retired from the agency business in 2010.
Eastman is survived by her former husband Paul N. Lazarus III, her stepson Robert Lazarus and his wife Annie.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.
