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Memorials are planned in Los Angeles and New York City for Lois Smith, the pioneering New York-based “publicist to the stars” whose clients included Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, director Martin Scorsese and Marilyn Monroe during a career that lasted nearly half a century. Photos: Lois Smith's Career in Pictures Smith, who passed away Oct. 7 at age 84, will be remembered on Nov. 13 at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Los Angeles; and on Dec. 4 in New York at the 92nd Street Ymca. For the event in Los Angeles, RSVP by email to RSVPLois@id-pr.com. Smith started

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This story first appeared in the Oct. 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. We first met in the late '60s in New York, and we were kind of rivals. I was at Rogers & Cowan, and Lois Smith was at Allen, Foster, Ingersoll and Weber -- she was the Weber, which was her maiden name. A couple years later, we decided to form our own little PR company with Gerry Johnson called Pickwick. My husband and I were moving to California, where I would open an office, and Lois and Gerry would be in New York. Photos: Lois Smith's Career

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Lois Smith, who died last weekend from complications due to a fall, helped to define modern PR. Back in 1971, she founded, along with Pat Kingsley (who handled Tom Cruise for years), New York's Pickwick Public Relations, and went on to pursue production at Marble Arch and United Artists before returning to her first love. In 1980, Kingsley's Pickwick merged with Michael Maslansky and Neil Koenigsberg's La press agency Maslansky/Koenigsberg, to become the mighty P/M/K, which ruled Hollywood PR in the 90s under Kingsley, the returned Smith and Leslee Dart. New York uber-publicist Peggy Siegal (see her tribute below) was nurtured and mentored by Smith, and worked with her at Pickwick, Smith & Siegal and P/M/K before launching her own praisery (as Variety would call it). Smith was a class act with a booming bonhomie who did not stoop to conquer. She was maternal and generous with her knowledge,...

Lois Smith, a much-admired veteran movie publicist and the mother of Grey's Anatomy actress Brooke Smith, died Sunday afternoon after suffering a brain hemorrhage due to an accidental fall, Deadline reports. She was 85. The New York-based industry trailblazer was in Maine, where her husband, Eugene Smith, was set to be recognized for his philanthropic work. Smith fell down the stairs late Saturday night at the bed-and-breakfast where they were staying while in town. A maternal figure to both stars and journalists who tended to adore her in equal doses, Smith, along with Pat Kingsley and Patricia Newcombe, helped establish the...

Lois Smith, the New York-based publicist who helped promote the careers of Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford and Martin Scorsese among many others, died early Sunday of a brain hemorrhage after an accidental fall. She was 85. Smith, along with Pat Kingsley, Gerry Johnson and Pat Newcomb, formed Pickwick Public Relations in 1969, a company that would later become Pmk/Hbh. Smith (with Elliott Gould, right) and her husband Eugene Smith were visiting Hebron Academy Saturday in Maine, where they were being honored for their fund-raising efforts. During the night she fell, sustaining a...

Lois Smith, the influential, New York-based publicist who was instrumental in promoting the careers of a wide range of Hollywood figures that included Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford and Martin Scorsese, died Sunday of a brain hemorrhage she suffered because of an accidental fall. She was 85. Smith and her husband Eugene Smith were visiting Hebron Academy, the college preperatory school in Hebron, Maine, where they was being honored during homecoming weekend. During the night, while staying at a local bed-and-breakfast, she fell, sustaining the head injury and was taken to a local hospital. Lois Smith, along with

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Breaking: Lois Smith, one of New York’s longtime top publicists and an architect of the PR powerhouse Pmk, passed away this afternoon at 2 Pm after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She was 85. Smith represented the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Meryl Streep, Whitney Houston and Rosie O’Donnell. Smith had accompanied her husband, Gene, to Maine where he was to receive an award for his fundraising on behalf of his alma mater Hebron Academy. They had checked into a bed and breakfast and, after she got up late last night, she tripped and fell down the stairs. She and Gene had four children: 57-year-old Eric, 46-year-old Luke, 45-year-old actress Brooke (she starred in The Silence Of The Lambs), and Scott, the latter of whom passed away in 1985. Smith, along with Pat Kingsley, Jerry Johnson and Pat Newcombe, formed the PR company PickWick in 1969. While Smith...