Edgar Rosenberg (September 21, 1925^[1] – August 14, 1987) was a German-born British^[2] film and television producer based in the U.S.

Early life

Edgar Rosenberg was born to Jewish parents in Bremerhaven in 1925.^[1][3] When he was a small boy, his family emigrated from Germany to Denmark and then South Africa to escape the Nazis.^[4] He was educated in England at Rugby School and Cambridge University.^[4][5]

Career

Rosenberg moved to the United States as a young man and rose to become an assistant to Emanuel Sacks, vice president of entertainment at NBC, but was fired during a year of recovery from a traffic accident and had to work as a night clerk in a bookstore.^[4] In the 1960s, he worked for the public relations firm run by Anna M. Rosenberg (to whom he was not related) and was a valued news source for journalists.^[5]

As a co-founder of the nonprofit Telsun Foundation production company affiliated with the United Nations, he helped to develop a series of television films promoting the United Nations, one of which, The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966), was also released to theaters as a feature film.^[4][6][7] His other television credits included the 1950s U.S. educational TV series Omnibus^[5] and the short-lived 1970s sitcom Husbands, Wives & Lovers, which was created by his wife, Joan Rivers.

In the 1970s, he produced the feature film Rabbit Test (1978), written and directed by Rivers.^[8] He served as Rivers' manager for most of their marriage and was a producer on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, on the newly formed Fox Television Network.^[4][5][9]

Personal life and death

Rosenberg married actress, comedian and commentator Joan Rivers in July 1965, five days after hiring her to work with him in Jamaica rewriting a screenplay for a joint movie deal with his friend Peter Sellers.^[4][5] The couple had one daughter, Melissa Rivers.

In August 1987, several months after Fox fired him and Rivers, Rosenberg died by suicide, overdosing on prescription drugs in a Philadelphia hotel room. He had been clinically depressed, which Rivers believed was brought on by medication he had been taking since a heart attack in 1984.^[10][11] Nancy Reagan was the first person to telephone Rivers upon Rosenberg's death, and arranged for his body to be moved from Philadelphia.^[12][13]