Irving Leonard (December 28, 1915 - December 13, 1969) was an American financial adviser to Hollywood film stars of the 1950s and 1960s and an associate film producer.
Leonard began as a cost accountant in Washington, D.C., and later moved into the film industry.[1] Among his notable clients were James Garner and Clint Eastwood.[2] [3] He was arguably the most responsible for launching Eastwood's career in the late 1950s and 1960s and whom Eastwood described as being "like a second father to me".[4] Leonard, described by Richard Schickel as "a small fastidious man" and a "lightning calculator",[4] closely advised Eastwood on his finances, career moves and even personal purchases such as cars and houses, right from the mid-1950s through to their planning of the film Play Misty for Me in the winter of his death in 1969, Eastwood's directorial debut.[5] It was Leonard who did the groundwork in establishing Eastwood's The Malpaso Company for the film Hang 'Em High in 1967, using the earnings from the Dollars Trilogy.[6] Leonard had served as President of the Malpaso Company and associate producer of Eastwood's films from Hang 'Em High until his death.[3] [7] [8]
Patrick McGilligan, who wrote a 1999 biography of Eastwood, describes Leonard as follows:
Leonard died shortly before Christmas 1969, aged 53.[3] Friends of Eastwood say he was never as devastated in his life as to when he heard the news of Leonard's passing.[3] Leonard had employed two bookkeepers, Roy Kaufman and Howard Berstein, who after his death formed a new entity, Kaufman and Bernstein Inc., and continued to handle Eastwood's portfolio.[3]