Edgar Rosenberg

Edgar Rosenberg (died August 14, 1987) was a German-born American film and television producer. He was the husband of the American comedienne Joan Rivers.

According to Rivers, Rosenberg was born in Bremerhaven; when he was a small boy, his family emigrated from Germany to Denmark and then South Africa in order to escape the Nazis. He was educated in England at Rugby School and Cambridge University. He 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. 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. His production company, Telsun Foundations, affiliated with the United Nations, was responsible for five feature films, including The Poppy is Also a Flower, and his television credits included the 1950s US series Omnibus and Husbands, Wives & Lovers.

Rosenberg married comedian and commentator Joan Rivers in July 1965 four days after hiring her to work with him rewriting a screenplay. He is the father of Melissa Rivers. He had been 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.

In August 1987, several months after Fox fired Rivers, Rosenberg committed suicide by overdosing on prescription drugs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had been suffering from clinical depression, which Rivers believes was brought on by medication he had been taking since suffering a heart attack in 1984.

Famous quotes containing the words edgar and/or rosenberg:

    That’s life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.
    Martin Goldsmith, and Edgar G. Ulmer. Al Roberts (Tom Neal)

    America is the civilization of people engaged in transforming themselves. In the past, the stars of the performance were the pioneer and the immigrant. Today, it is youth and the Black.
    —Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)