Leonard Kornberg, a longtime studio executive, story analyst and teacher who worked on Paddington, The Mummy, King Kong, Hacksaw Ridge and Psycho, among other projects, died on Jan. 3. He was 75.
Kornberg began his career in Hollywood in the early 1980s as a story analyst at Carson Productions. He later held analyst roles at Fox and Universal before being promoted at Universal to director of development, vice president of production and ultimately senior vice president of production, helping shepherd several projects from script to screen.
In 2001, Kornberg was diagnosed with Adult Polyglucosan Body Disease (APBD), a rare progressive neurodegenerative disorder. As a result, his mobility started to decline; however, instead of stepping away from his career, he adapted his work.
He later returned to story analysis at Universal and, despite becoming bed-bound due to his diagnosis, contributed as an uncredited producer and consulting producer for Canal Plus.
Throughout his career, he worked on numerous films, including Cop and a Half (1993), The River Wild (1994), The Hunted, (1995), Flipper (1996), The Jackal (1997), Psycho (1998), Virus (1999), Life (1999), Dudley Do-Right (1999), The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001), The Scorpion King (2002), Sahara (2005), King Kong (2005), And Soon the Darkness (2010), The Last Exorcism Part II (2013), Serena (2014), Paddington (2014), A War (2015), Paddington 2 (2017), The Mercy (2018), Radioactive (2019), The Secret Garden (2020), Retribution (2023) and Paddington in Peru (2024), among others. He also served as executive producer on 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge.
Outside his industry work, he also taught script analysis for producers at USC’s Stark Producing Program.
Kornberg held degrees from Hamilton College, Middlebury College and San Francisco State University.
He is survived by his wife, Kit Hellman; his brother, Broadway publicist Richard Kornberg; his son, Sam Kornberg; his daughter-in-law, Kimberly Kornberg; his granddaughter, Harper; his daughter, Kate Kornberg; her husband, Matthieu Vahanian; and their children, Emile and Lucy.
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