Los Angeles, CA – Veteran talent agent Scott Manners passed away in Los Angeles on Friday after a brief battle with ALS, according to his agency, Artists & Representatives. Manners, who was 68 years old, peacefully passed surrounded by his family.
Throughout his career, Manners was highly regarded for representing top actors in the industry. In addition, he had a few acting credits of his own in the late 1970s.
Manners co-founded the boutique talent agency Stone Manners with Tim Stone 37 years ago. In 2010, Glenn Salners became a partner, prompting the agency to change its name to Stone Manners Salners. Then in 2019, the company once again rebranded as Artists & Representatives, expanding its presence to the East Coast with the addition of more partners and agents in New York.
In a statement, Artists & Representatives expressed their admiration for Manners’ lifelong commitment to representing artists. The agency said, “Through the years, we have all been moved by his mission to brilliantly represent the artists who bring our society closer to love. It was his life’s work to make a difference every day and change lives for the better.”
When announcing the name change in 2019, Manners shared some of the guiding principles of his extensive career as an agent. He stated, “As the industry becomes more corporate, we actively look for ways to bring humanity to the work. I have always felt that I wanted to turn art into commerce; but without the art, I’m not interested in the commerce.”
In honor of Manners’ profound influence, his colleagues decided to share a quote by Eugene O’Neill, a quote that Manners often recited. They believe that the quote reflects his ongoing commitment to excellence and the universal spirit he embodied. The quote says, “The people who succeed and do not push on to a greater failure are the spiritual middle class. The man who pursues the mere attainable should be sentenced to get it — and keep it. Let him rest on his laurels and enthrone him in a Morris chair, in which laurels and hero may wither together. Only through the unattainable does man achieve a hope worth living and dying for — and so attain himself.”
Manners’ friends added their own sentiments, saying, “Scott never ceased pushing for his next ‘unattainable’ after each victory, all while inspiring hope and passion in everyone who knew him.”
The entertainment industry has lost a talented individual in Scott Manners, whose impact on the representation of artists will be remembered for years to come.