Producer Ingo Preminger dead at 95

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LOS ANGELES, June 12 (UPI) -- The producer of the Hollywood blockbuster, "MASH," Ingo Preminger, has died at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., at age 95.

Preminger died Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Preminger was also a literary agent who represented, among others, Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr., who were both blacklisted during the 1950s. He worked with blacklisted writers by using other writers, who agreed to claim the work as their own, to help get past studio restrictions, the Times said.

It was Lardner who helped Preminger make his biggest career move.

In the late 1960s, Lardner sent Preminger a copy of the book "MASH" by New Jersey surgeon Richard Hornberger, who wrote under the pseudonym Richard Hooker.

Directed by Robert Altman, produced by Preminger and made on a small budget, "MASH" was a box office and critical hit. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970, a Golden Globe for best musical or comedy film and was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture.

He is survived by his wife, a son and daughter, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.