Barrie Duncan Heath (born June 1946) is a British talent agent, producer and co-chairman of Independent Talent Group, Europe's largest talent agency, based in London, England.
Heath's relationship with his father was not always cordial, and he later recalled that his father disapproved of him entering the entertainment industry, adding that he "wanted me to go work in some dark Satanic mill somewhere".[6]
Career
Contrary to his father's wishes, Heath began his career in advertising, and, in 1971, joined the William Morris Agency in London as a runner, beginning at the very bottom of the industry. After less than a year, he had been fired for behind he later described as "insolence and mild violence".[6]
In a later interview with Industrial Scripts, Heath elaborated on his dismissal from the William Morris Agency, saying:
"Certainly insolence, and more than mild violence. The managing director was one of these people who snapped, and eventually I lost it. I also pretended to be an agent when I wasn't. I was actually in charge of photographs."
in 1973, Heath and his then-wife-to-be, Hilary Dwyer, founded the talent agency Duncan Heath Associates. In an interview with Financial Times in 2002, he said "she introduced me to a lot of people – if it wasn't for her, it wouldn't have happened." He found the money to start the business by betting the remains of his wages from William Morris on a horse that his mother had running at Newbury. The horse came in at 35:1 and he found himself with £3,500, a sum he described as "a shitload of money in the 1970s". He bought a fifty per cent stake in a company owned and run by Christopher Long, a former ICM agent, though at first business was slow. "We spent most of our time hanging around theatres asking actors if they wanted an agent. Most of the time they just told you to fuck off."[6][7]
Duncan Heath Associates was sold to the US-based talent agency International Creative Management (ICM) in 1985. In 1991, Duncan Heath Associates merged with ICM London, and he became chairman of the merged company.[6][8]
Heath married his first wife, Hilary Maud Dwyer, an actress, businesswoman, and film producer, at Caxton Hall in Westminster, Greater London on 31 October 1973.[13][14] They had two children together. The couple divorced in 1989, after less than 16 years of marriage. His daughter, Laura, founded and runs the Hope-Martin Animal Foundation in Barbados. His son, Daniel, is a Los Angeles-based film composer, writing songs for artists such as Lana Del Rey.[15][16] Dwyer died from COVID-19 at her home in the Earl's Court district of West London on 30 March 2020, aged 74.[17][18]
Heath married his second wife, Lex Lutzus, a film producer and financier, in 2013. They have two sons together and lived in Clapham Common Southside. The couple later divorced.[19]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
