Biographie
Frank Konigsberg is the most respected talent management and television producers in the world. He was born in 1933. He graduated from various law schools.
He started his career as a lawyer for CBS, and later for the International Famous Agency and become Bing Crosby's agent. In 1975, he joined ICM Partners, and then subsequently formed his own production company The Konigsberg Company, with its main target being focused on specials, TV series, TV movies and miniseries. He started his producing career with the special "Bing... A 50th Anniversary Gala" in 1977, followed by his first TV movie "Calling Doctor Storm, M.D.".
In 1980, The Konigsberg Company signed a three-year contract with 20th Century-Fox whereas they supervised many of its productions Konigsberg handled to Fox, like "Breaking Away", "Hardcase", "Divorce Wars: A Love Story", "Coming Out of the Ice" and "It's Not Easy". It was also produced the feature films "Joy of Sex" and "9 1/2 Weeks".
In 1983, The Konigsberg Company was sold to Telepictures, whereas Konigsberg became president of production. Larry Sanitsky, who has just finished his career at Highgate Pictures, joined Telepictures as vice president of creative affairs, and later served as producing partner. During his time at Telepictures, he produced long-form television pictures "Wet Gold", "The Glitter Dome", "Surviving", "Right to Kill", "Act of a Vengeance", "As Summers Die" and "Strong Medicine", as well as the miniseries "Ellis Island" and the soap opera "Rituals". Both Konigsberg and Sanitsky bought the rights to the Stephen King novel "It", and it was optioned for producers Jim Green and Allen Epstein.
In 1986, after the merger of Lorimar and Telepictures, both Konigsberg and Sanitsky broke away and launched its own independent production company The Konigsberg/Sanitsky Company. There the duo produced long-form television pictures "Casanova", "Onassis: The Richest Man in the World", "Dance 'Til Dawn", "Where's the Hell That Gold?!?", "Babycakes", "Rock Hudson", "Paris Trout" and "Oldest Living Conference: Widow Tells It All", as well as two Stephen King miniseries "It" and "The Tommyknockers". In 1993, they tried making its foray into TV shows with "Angel Falls", but it flopped suddenly after a few episodes.
In 1989, The Konigsberg/Sanitsky Company, along with rival telemovie producers Von Zerneck/Sertner Films, Leonard Hill Films, The Steve Tisch Company, The Avnet/Kerner Company, Michael Jaffe/Spectacor Films, Steve White Productions and Robert Greenwald Productions launched Allied Communications Inc. whereas they want to distribute its product on its own, produced by these respective companies. It was sold to Pearson plc. in 1995 becoming part of its Pearson Television division.
In 1994, both Konigsberg and Sanitsky part ways, with the former launching The Konigsberg Company, and the latter is heading to CBS as executive vice president. There, The Konigsberg Company produced the miniseries "Children in the Dust", as well as the long-form television productions "Shadows of Desire", "Deadly Pursuits", "Sweet Temptation" and "A Face to Die For". Following Sanitsky's exit from CBS in 1995, Konigsberg and Sanitsky resumed their working relationships, working on the long-form production "A Loss of Innocence", as well as the miniseries "Titanic", "The Last Don" and "The Last Don II". In addition, Frank Konigsberg via The Konigsberg Company solely produced long-form television movies "The Price of Heaven", "Belle Mafia" "Deep in the Heart".
Shortly afterwards in 2000, he partnered with agency employee Drew Smith, in order to re-brand it to Konigsberg/Smith Productions. There both Konigsberg and Smith produced "Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes" and "Caught in the Act". In addition, Konigsberg was listed as a producer of "Living in Fear". After Konigsberg and Smith part ways in the mid-2000s, he reverted it back to its old name The Konigsberg Company to produce long-form television movies "Sex and Lies in Sin City", "Lies in Plain Sight", "William & Kate", "Of Two Minds", 'Meddling Mom" and "Away and Back" as well as the mini-series "Ben Hur" and the feature films "Hard Times" and "All Roads Lead to Home".
On November 14, 2016, he was died of a heart attack. Three years after his death, both Konigsberg and Sanitsky were hit by a lawsuit against Warner Bros. which they asserted they both claimed the rights to the book "It" when both Konigsberg and Sanitsky were running Telepictures in the mid 1980s.
