Creator of the modern day ratings system dies in is Washington home
By Damara Popoola

Valenti dead at 85

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 4/26/07 – Jack Valenti, who was the face of the Motion Picture Assn. of America for nearly 40 years and a staunch industry activist, died Thursday afternoon at the age of 85.

Valenti had a stroke last March and received treatment at John Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore for several weeks before returning to his home in Washington on Tuesday. He died there from complications due to the stroke.

In the early ‘60s Valenti worked side by side as an aide to then Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson and was even present in the 1963 Dallas motorcade where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Though he was ever loyal to Johnson, Valenti left the White House in 1966 after Lee Wasserman invited him to be head of the MPAA. Just two years into his tenure, Valenti established what he is best known for – the formal letter-based ratings system we know today in order to replace the then outdated and overly-restrictive Hays code.

Speaking about his ratings system n a 2004 interview with the Associated Press, Valenti said, “While I believe that every director, studio has the right to make the movies they want to make, everybody else has a right not to watch it. All we do is give advance cautionary warnings and say this is what we think is in this movie.”

In 2004, Valenti retired from the MPAA, but remained in the public eye. He kept busy with a column for the Politico, advocating programs for parents to restrict the shows their children watch, and writing books. His memoir “This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood” is due out in June 2007.

Valenti is survived by his wife Mary Margaret, whom he met when she was a secretary for Johnson, and their three children, Courtenay, John, and Alexandra. Though Valenti and his wife split their time between homes in Washington and Los Angeles, a private mass celebrating his life of will be held in Washington with details being announced in coming days.