Andreas "Andy" Albeck (September 25, 1921 – September 29, 2010) was an American movie executive, who was president and chief executive of United Artists, during a time when it released two films by Woody Allen, along with two films in both the James Bond and Rocky film series. He also oversaw production of Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, a movie frequently mentioned as one of the films considered the greatest ever, as well as Heaven's Gate, the box office bomb that led to the studio's demise as an independent studio. Biography Albeck was born on September 25, 1921, in Vladivostok, Russia. His father was a Danish executive with a shipping firm, while his mother was a Russian escaping the Bolshevik Revolution. His family was taken aboard an American naval vessel to Yokohama, Japan, where Albeck was raised and educated at St. Joseph College. His first connection to the film industry was in 1939, when he became a sales representative for Columbia Pictures in what was then the Dutch East Indies, present day Indonesia. He came to United Artists when the company made the 1951 acquisition of Eagle-Lion Films, the British film company he had been working for. His first marriage, to Nelly Stal, produced two children, Johannes and Nina. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1958 Albeck remarried Lotte Jamel, whom he had met in 1952 when she had been brought to the United States by her cousin Mickey Marcus, a colonel in the United States Army and Israel's first general. Albeck later had Marcus' experience during World War II and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War made into the 1966 United Artists film Cast a Giant Shadow, starring Kirk Douglas. Albeck worked his way up through the sales department at United Artists, earning promotions to become president of its broadcasting division and senior vice president of operations. In 1978, Transamerica Corporation chose him to head the studio after its former chairman Arthur B. Krim left with a group of executives to form Orion Pictures, picking Albeck for his ability to control costs and his positive relationship with wary Transamerica executives. Author Steven Bach, who served as head of production at United Artists under Albeck, wrote, "Andy Albeck was not show business; that much was clear," in his book Final Cut. During his tenure at United Artists, the studio produced The French Lieutenant's Woman starring Meryl Streep, Manhattan and Stardust Memories by director