Helen Kushnick, who managed Jay Leno's rise from small-time comic to host of "The Tonight Show" but was dismissed as executive producer of the program four months after Leno replaced Johnny Carson, has died at her home in Manhattan.
The cause was cancer, said Jane Rosenthal, a friend. She was 51.After Leno took over "The Tonight Show" in May 1992, the show received an avalanche of criticism and ratings began to fall. In late September, Kushnick was dismissed by NBC executives after she was accused of demanding that guests booked by "Tonight" not appear on rival talk shows.
Kushnick, whose maiden name was Gorman, grew up in Harlem. Her first job was as secretary to the producer David Gerber at 20th Century Fox in New York. She moved to Hollywood with Gerber and eventually found work at International Creative Management, the talent agency, where she rose from secretary to agent.
In the mid-1970s, she formed a partnership with her husband, Jerrold Kushnick, an entertainment lawyer, and established herself as a manager. Her clients included Leno, whom she spotted in 1975 at the Comedy Store, Elayne Boosler, Jimmie Walker and, for a brief period, David Letterman.
Kushnick's role in Leno's rise to host of "The Tonight Show" was chronicled in "The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno and the Network Battle for the Night," by Bill Carter, a television reporter for the New York Times. In an HBO movie based on the book, the role of Kushnick was played by Kathy Bates.
Kushnick, contesting Carter's version of events, filed a lawsuit for libel. The suit was settled out of court.
Her husband died of cancer seven years ago. The couple had twins, one of whom, Samuel, became infected with AIDS during a blood transfusion and died at age 3 in 1983. Helen Kushnick became an active campaigner in the fight against the disease.