Valenti is recuperating following stroke

Former Hollywood lobbyist and presidential adviser Jack Valenti, 85, suffered a stroke last week and is recuperating at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore.

 “His family tells me that the doctors are encouraged by his progress to date,” close friend and Warner Bros. chief executive Barry Meyer said in a statement released Tuesday. “[Valenti’s wife] Mary Margaret and his children have asked me to express their deep appreciation of the outpouring of love, support and prayers. Out of respect for Jack and his family’s privacy, we are not going to release any additional information at this time.”

Valenti’s daughter, Courtenay Valenti, is the executive vice president of production at Warner Bros. The Motion Picture of Association of America (MPAA), where Valenti served as president from 1966 to 2004, referred requests for comment and information to Warner Bros.

Prior to his tenure at the MPAA, Valenti was an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and President John F. Kennedy. He was famously aboard Air Force One when Johnson was sworn in following Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.

 

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