Gil Cates; Photo by John Shearer/WireImage.com

The death this week of director and producer Gil Cates deeply struck the Los Angeles theater, film and television communities. He had been ramping up his work schedule after heart surgery earlier this year and collapsed Monday in a parking lot at UCLA, where he founded the School of Theater, Film, and Television.

Alan Alda

Cates also founded the Geffen Playhouse across the street from the university. Alan Alda, whose play Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie opens next week at the Geffen, had dinner with Cates Sunday before watching a run-through together.

“I’ve known Gil for what must be 30 years, maybe more,” says Alda, before appearing on 89.3 KPCC with Patt Morrison. “I was involved several times in shows he produced or directed. He was making great progress after having quadruple bypass months ago. It’s a great loss to anybody who has met Gil, not just worked with him. Just to meet him, you were in the presence of someone who was extremely kind, gentle and very encouraging.”

Cates, he says, was unique. “I don’t think anybody would say he stepped on anyone or was rude to anyone. He was an anomaly in a very tough business. He made tremendous contributions to the Directors Guild, the Academy Awards ceremonies, the longest-running producer of the Oscars [14 shows]. All of that was done with grace. You weren’t just glad to see him. Everybody actually loved him. There was tremendous warmth that came from him.”

Susan Loewenberg; Photo by LA Theatre Works

Susan Loewenberg, the executive producer of LA Theatre Works, which recently moved its radio theater performances from the Skirball Cultural Center to the James Bridges Theatre inside the very school Cates founded, says, “Gil Cates was an extraordinary producer who gave Los Angeles the gift of his talents and a wonderful theater.”

Having LATW’s productions now at UCLA gives the company a wonderful lift, says Loewenberg. “We’re working with all three departments – film, TV and theater – and there is such a wonderful spirit. The students and faculty are superb, yet another thing we have to thank Gil for.”

It’s fitting, she maintains, that LA Theatre Works is at the James Bridges Theatre. “It’s a superb film screening facility with some of the best, if not the best, equipment in the city. But it’s also a wonderful live performance space, a perfect reflection of Gil’s two passions.”

Gordon Davidson, founding artistic director of the the Mark Taper Forum and later the artistic director of the entire Center Theatre Group, was in his car when he got the news of Cates’ death. “I was in a parking stall and I just sat there. I didn’t want to drive.”

Davidson says he and Cates would meet a couple times a year for lunch. “It was a chance for us to get caught up and bitch about everything from the state of the world to the state of the arts, and that always gets us talking about getting money into theaters in Los Angeles. We’ve always faced the same problems.”

Michael Ritchie

Davidson’s successor, Michael Ritchie, had a similar albeit shorter relationship with Cates. “Gil was the first person to call me to congratulate me when it was announced that I would be taking the position of artistic director at CTG. It meant the world to me that he saw us as collaborators and not competitors. We immediately started having regular lunches.  I always looked forward to those times…for the sharing of perspective, for the possibility of gossip and for the guarantee of laughter.”

“Gil and I were good friends,” Davidson says, echoing Alda’s assessment that Cates succeeded through his generous personality and skill. “When you put his career together, it’s pretty amazing, both the accomplishments and influence that will reverberate for a long time. It’s certainly true in film and TV as a director and producer and administrator. Mostly he had a skill for organization and for understanding the different kinds of challenges in doing the Academy Awards on the one hand and doing a new play or revival of a classic at the Geffen on the other. He had tenacity and I think that’s part of the job description.”

Cates was a master juggler. “You can’t hold as many cards as he held. And I think he did it all with grace and humor and talent. I felt no sense of competition.”

Gordon Davidson; Photo by Steve Julian

Davidson, a Cornell University graduate, notes Cates attended the nearby Syracuse University as did Davidson’s wife, Judi, a founding publicist with Tim Choy at Davidson and Choy. While Judi Davidson transferred as a junior to Vassar, she remembers Cates, who was a few years ahead of her, as a Big Man On Campus.

On running multiple theaters, as did Cates, Davidson says, “I think the Geffen represents a significant professional entity and the second space, the Audrey Skirball Kenis, means they’re able to do a variety of stuff. We always shared those kinds of commonalities rather than competition. Competition isn’t very interesting.”

For Davidson, one of the common problems in car-focused Los Angeles has been getting people on one side of town to drive to the other. “I think there are people who’ll go to the Geffen and the Taper. The weak spot there is the ‘and’ because people just don’t want to make the drive.”

He and Cates would lament the LA region’s geography, which leaves theater de-centralized. “But there are good theaters [worth driving to],” Davidson believes, noting the Pasadena Playhouse and its new neighbor A Noise Within on the northeast side of the LA area.

Sheldon Epps

Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps says, “Gil was a valuable colleague who was so supportive both personally and professionally. He brought great passion and flair to our theater community and will be greatly missed, but we are fortunate that the theater he built will carry on.”

Davidson, who was born in New York City in 1933, notes that “Gil was born [also in New York City] in 1934. When something like this happens you start thinking about a lot of things. It comes with the territory.”

Deep in their bloodstream, Davidson believes, are the “important theaters of the 1940s and ‘50s. Both of us were touched by what Strasberg and the others stood for. He would say ‘Gordon just remember you are an artist and you are allowed to dream and when you dream, dream of money!’”

Davidson pauses. He last saw Cates before the bypass surgery. “And I feel like I missed something there. I knew we were due to see each other but we didn’t. I think Gil had the combination of grace, skill and humanity. You can always tell someone who’s really wiling to listen as well as have something to say. I guess that’s why our lunches were good times. I always returned refreshed, well-fed and best of all, not feeling alone. We were warriors together. That’s what I’ll miss the most.”