Nessa Hyams, a groundbreaking casting director of the New Hollywood whose work on such 1970s masterpieces as Peter Bogdanovich’s screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc?, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, died January 9 at her home in Manhattan. She was 84.
Her death was announced by family. A cause was not specified.
Hyams, the head of casting at Warner Bros. from 1970-’74 and then vice president of creative affairs at Columbia Pictures from ’74-’75, was one of the highest-ranking female executives in Hollywood at the time.
In addition to her casting career – which assembled a roster of performers for some of the most enduring and celebrated films of the 1970s – Hyams directed 105 episodes of Norman Lear’s trend-setting soap opera satire Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (starring Louise Lasser) during the show’s two and only seasons in 1976 and 1977. Her episode count is second only to that of Jim Drake, who directed 157 of the show’s 325 episodes.
Born November 21, 1941, in New York City to Broadway producer and publicist Barry Hyams and Ruth Hurok, the daughter of famed Russia-born show business impresario Sol Hurok, Nessa was the sister of Capricorn One writer-director Peter Hyams and stepdaughter of Arthur Lief, a Broadway and orchestra conductor who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
In 1971, Hyams launched her career as a casting director on the Robert Mulligan hit coming-of-age drama Summer of ’42, and the following year established herself when she cast Peter Bogdanovich’s screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, which became one of the year’s highest-grossing films. (Her work on another 1972 film, director Brian De Palma’s legendarily troubled comedy Get To Know Your Rabbit starring Tommy Smothers, John Astin, Katherine Ross and Orson Welles, went uncredited).
The following years brought Hyams continued success, with Friedkin’s seminal 1973 horror film The Exorcist and Brooks’ 1974 taboo-shattering comedy Western Blazing Saddles. Both were box office smashes. Less successful were two other ’74 entries, the John Wayne cop drama McQ and the notorious Lucille Ball flop Mame.
Whether working on box office successes or otherwise, Hyams established herself as a versatile casting director across various genres. Other film credits include Paul Mazursky’s dramedy Blume in Love (1973), Jack Starrett’s pioneering blaxploitation actioner Cleopatra Jones (1973), Mike Hodges’ horror-sci fi entry The Terminal Man (1974), Richard Rush’s Alan Arkin-James Caan comedy Freebie and the Bean (1974), and Arthur Penn’s neo-noir detective story Night Moves starring Gene Hackman (1975).
Though uncredited, Hyams is reported to have assisted director Mike Nichols in finding actors for both The Graduate (1967) and Catch-22 (1970). In a 2016 Film Talk interview, Peter Hyams said, “My sister was a great casting director. She cast pictures for Warner Brothers, pictures for Mike Nichols, for William Friedkin, etc. She was very smart. When I was casting Outland [1981], for the part of the doctor, I had a Charles Durning type of actor in mind, he was always so wonderful. My sister read the script and said to me, ‘Cast Frances Sternhagen to play the doctor.’ And I did, and she brought something to it that I hadn’t thought of; she made the character different.”
Known for her dry and quick wit, Hyams married Hollywood studio executive and producer David V. Picker on June 8, 1975 (Picker, who served as president of United Artists during its golden age, had been instrumental in bringing the James Bond franchise to the studio and establishing relationships with Woody Allen and other major filmmakers). The marriage ended in divorce, and Hyams went on to marry commercial real estate broker Jonathan Miller, who died in 2022.
Following her successes as a casting director, Hyams spent five years as Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures, one of the first women to hold a major executive position at a studio. After training at the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, Hyams made her feature directorial debut in 1987 with Leader of the Band, a comedy starring Steve Landesberg.
She also continued her television work, most notably directing the popular, droll, controversial and zeitgeist-capturing Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. She later directed episodes of Cagney & Lacey (1987) and Chillers starring Anthony Perkins (1990).
In 1993, Hyams was the producer and casting director on Tim Hunter’s drama The Saint of Fort Washington starring Danny Glover and Matt Dillon.
In addition to brother Peter, Hyams is survived by sister Danna Hyams as well as her stepdaughters Caryn and Pam Picker and nephews Chris, John and Nick Hyams.