Barry Diller - Early Life

Early Life

Diller was born and raised in San Francisco, California, the son of Reva (née Addison) and Michael Diller. He began his career through a family connection in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency after dropping out of UCLA after one semester. He was hired as an assistant by Elton Rule, then west coast head of ABC who was promoted to network President at the same time Diller went to work for him in 1964, taking him on to New York, and Diller was soon placed in charge of negotiating broadcast rights to feature films. He was promoted to Vice President of Development in 1965. In this position, Diller created the ABC Movie of the Week, pioneering the concept of the made-for-television movie through a regular series of 90-minute films produced exclusively for television.

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