RIP Mike Fenton

 

American casting director Mike Fenton died in a Los Angeles hospital on December 30, 2020. He was 85. Born Ronald Michael Fenton in Los Angeles on January 29, 1935, he spent more than a half-century in show business. After starting out in the mailroom at Music Corporation of America and becoming an agent at the Lew Wasserman firm, Fenton served as casting director for Paramount and then for Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard's T&L Productions, where he worked on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’, ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, ‘That Girl’, ‘Gomer Pyle: USMC’ and ‘I Spy’. Fenton co-founded the Casting Society of America (then known as American Society of Casting Directors) in 1982. He was presented with the CSA's Hoyt Bowers Award for career achievement in 1989 and was a champion of casting directors everywhere. Fenton was casting director for two Euro-westerns: “Another Man, Another Chance” (1977) and “Louisiana” (1984).