Veteran TV impresario Robert Halmi Sr dies at 90

Prolific television producer Robert Halmi, Sr, has died.

Spokesman Russ Patrick said Halmi died yesterday in his New York City home. He was 90.

The Hungarian-born Halmi found success as a magazine photographer after arriving in America in 1951. But in a mid-career switch he turned to moving pictures.

During the next half-century he went on to produce more than 200 films and miniseries for television.

His specialty was family-friendly entertainment, with projects including "The Josephine Baker Story," the Bette Midler-starring "Gypsy," ''Merlin," ''Dinotopia" and the miniseries sequel to "Gone With the Wind."

Halmi recently had begun filming "Olympus," a mythological series for the Syfy channel.
 

His projects were honored with 136 Emmy Awards. A Peabody Award citation called him "perhaps the last of the great network television impresarios.