Lehman ‘Lee’ Katz, 89; Studio Exec, Producer Helped Set Up DGA

Lehman “Lee” Katz, 89, a motion picture executive and an associate producer who was a founding member of what is now the Directors Guild of America, died of heart failure May 29 in Rancho Palos Verdes.

A native of Indianapolis, Katz grew up in New York City and graduated from Columbia University. He moved to Hollywood and began his motion picture career as a reader with RKO.

Subsequently working for several studios, he was an uncredited assistant director on “Casablanca” and a screenwriter for “Code of the Secret Service,” starring Ronald Reagan.

After service in Frank Capra’s Army Special Services Film Unit during World War II, Katz worked as an associate producer for such films as “Moby Dick” and “Topkapi.”

From 1963 until 1982, he was an executive with United Artists Corp., rising to vice president of worldwide production operations. For the following decade, he was a senior production consultant for the Completion Bond Co. on such films as “Passage to India” and “The Last Emperor.”