Diller, Barry 1942–

International Directory of Business Biographies, (2005) by William Atkins

Barry Diller 1942–

Chief executive officer and chairman, InterActiveCorp

Nationality: American.

Born: February 2, 1942, in San Francisco, California.

Education: Attended University of California, Los Angeles, 1961.

Family: Son of (a store owner) and Reva Addison (a receptionist); married Diane von Furstenberg (a clothing designer), 2001.

Career: William Morris Agency, 1961–1966, began in mailroom and became junior agent; American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 1966–1968, assistant to the vice president in charge of television programming; 1968–1969, executive assistant to the vice president in programming and director of feature films; 1969–1971, vice president for feature films and program development; Circle Entertainment (a division of ABC), 1971–1973, vice president (feature films, miniseries, and movies of week); ABC Entertainment, 1973–1974, vice president for prime-time TV; Paramount Pictures Corporation, 1974–1984, president and chairman of the board; Gulf & Western Entertainment and Communications Group, 1983–1984, president; Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corporation, TCF Holdings, 1984–1985, chairman and CEO; Fox, 1985–1992, chairman and CEO; QVC Network, 1992–1995, chairman and CEO; Silver King Communications, 1995–1998, chairman of board of directors and CEO; Home Shopping Network, 1996–1998, chairman of board of directors and CEO; InterActiveCorp (formerly USA Networks), 1998–, chairman and CEO; Vivendi Universal Entertainment, 2002–2003, chairman and CEO.

Address: InterActiveCorp, 152 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019–3310; http://www.iac.com.

■ As of the early 2000s Barry Charles Diller was a communications executive with InterActiveCorp, a multibrand interactive commerce company that transacted worldwide business through the Internet, television, and telephone. Diller's accomplishment was remarkable considering that his company's

Barry Diller. AP/Wide World Photos .

chief source of income was the risky Internet. During his career Diller was credited with creating such groundbreaking television concepts as the made-for-TV movie and the miniseries and even the debut of The Simpsons on Fox Television. The mogul had made a revolutionary career of extending the traditional boundaries of the media industry. Diller saw opportunities where competitors first saw failures and later copied his work. A rebel on many occasions, Diller was quoted on AskMen.com as having said, "I've not conducted my life in the service of smallness."

GROWING UP IN HOLLYWOOD

LEARNING THE TRADE

Like many business people who successfully climbed the corporate ladder, Diller began his career with an entry-level position. He worked in a mailroom at the William Morris Agency, a powerful Hollywood talent agency. There, Diller received the education he never got in college. He read all the contracts, memos, and correspondence that came through, in order to learn how the agency operated within the entertainment industry.

Diller was promoted to secretary and later to junior agent, in which capacity he continued to absorb job details, learning how to handle telephone calls, talk to buyers, and make deals. The message he valued was to follow through on promises and to have integrity in business dealings. During his time at the William Morris Agency, Diller developed the passion that characterized his subsequent professional career.

THE ABCS OF MOVIES

During a heated argument in 1966 with Leonard Goldberg, who was about to be named head of programming for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Diller impressed Goldberg with his knowledge. At the age of twenty-four, Diller secured a job as personal assistant to Goldberg. Within a few years Diller had impressed ABC upper management with his talent and ability to obtain desired results, mostly with a style of demand, pressure, and intimidation. Diller was promoted in 1968 to the position of executive assistant to the vice president in programming and director of feature films. One year later Diller was made vice president for feature films and program development. Diller was promoted again in 1971, this time to vice president in charge of prime-time feature films and program development for Circle Entertainment (a division of ABC). His tough negotiation style worked well, and he was given an enormous amount of power. Diller quickly learned how to separate good offers from bad ones.

One of Diller's early accomplishments was the premier in the fall of 1969 of the prime-time 90-minute series ABC's Movie of the Week . Under his direction, the series—which concentrated on stories drawn from news headlines, melodramas, mysteries, and controversial issues targeted to young, urban audiences—became the most popular TV movie series. The program raised viewership at ABC and elevated Diller's status so that he controlled advertising, direction, and promotion of the project. Two of his young producers were Aaron Spelling, who eventually became a prolific television producer, and Steven Spielberg, who would go on to fame as a feature film director.