ASC Casting Director and Co-Founder 85 – Deadline

Mike Fenton, casting director on hundreds of movies and TV shows, including classics such as Chinese district, American graffiti, Flight over a cuckoo’s nest, The bad news bears, Norma Rae, The Godfather: Part 2, The Goonies, AND, Indiana Jones and the Lost Bow Raiders, Blade runner, Back to the future and Chaplin is dead. He was 85 years old. Fenton also co-founded what became the Casting Society of America in 1982.

Steven Spielberg has worked on numerous projects with Fenton as director and producer, including The Sugarland Express, the director’s first feature film. Spielberg was among the first to weigh in on Fenton’s passing. Among other things, he remembered Fenton as a passionate advocate for the actors he had chosen.

Spielberg:

Working with Mike Fenton was like working in a candy store – he blew up the cast. His staunch support of actors was a legend, and after landing a role, an actor’s smile was rarely as wide as Mike’s. He not only supported the actors, he launched crusades. And he was a really good actor himself, as he always read dialogue off camera to create energy and mojo for the person reading the role. Much like the actors he championed for, Mike loved his role – and those around him loved him so much, and I will miss him dearly.

Fenton’s defense also extended to those of his own profession. In 1982, he co-founded the American Society of Casting Directors, which later became the Casting Society of America.

“In 1980, we were the only major group making non-union films,” he said in a 2019 interview for the CSA Archival Project. “A number of people decided they didn’t want a union. But David Rubin is a genius, and he was able in the [mid-2000s] almost with one hand to convince casting directors that they needed a union. And I think now the older casting directors realize what I was talking about when I was screaming for a union in 1980. I hope they like it as much as I do because it’s so important.

Professionally, Fenton has garnered 11 CSA Award nominations and two wins, both for a mini-series. He also received the CSA Hoyt Bowers Award in 1989 for Lifetime Achievement. This award recognizes not only a body of work, but also “casting excellence” and “outstanding contributions to the casting profession”.

Fenton was also accomplished on television. Alongside numerous TV movies and mini-series, Fenton has cast a series of ’60s classics, including This girl, Gomer Pyle: USMC and The Andy Griffith Show. Fenton was an associate producer on I spy and cast seven episodes of the hit series.

ASC Co-Chairs Russell Boast and Rich Mento released the following statement following the news of Fenton’s death:

The Casting Society of America is saddened by the death of co-founder Mike Fenton. Her remarkable accomplishments and incredible work in raising awareness and appreciation for the casting profession define her legacy in the entertainment industry. CSA extends her love and support to her cherished family and friends.
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Watch the CSA 2019 conversation with Mike Fenton below.