Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

A Story of Survival – Joan Hyler

posted by Women & Hollywood
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 12:26pm CDT

One of the first “Hollywood” people who reached out to me when I started writing the blog was Joan Hyler. That totally made my day. Joan Hyler is one of the legendary female managers in the business. She’s the shit. Some of her long time clients include Diane Lane and Karen Allen. She worked in NY in the 70s as an agent and now that Sue Mengers is retired, she’s one of the women left with serious Hollywood history. She’s a legend.

I was all set to try and see her on a trip I was taking to LA and then read the story of her horrific car accident in August of 2008. Suffice it to say that her injuries were devastating and she was in a coma for four months, but she somehow managed to survive and now she is back at work while still going through grueling rehab.

She appeared back in public for the first time to accept the Courage Award at the Visionary Ball to benefit UCLA Dept. of Neurosurgery whose doctors saved her life.

Here’s what she says about her career:

“I’d like to think I understood their talent and was able to help them articulate it,” she has said of her success with A-list clients. “I wanted this big-ass career, and I got it.”

Here’s how she described herself in an interview with the Jewish Journal

“I was a woman in the age of women, an agent in the age of agents, a New Yorker when that was the place to be … I have a thousand memories and not a single regret,” she says now. “That’s a quote from ‘Fiddler Jones.’ He ended up with a broken fiddle. That’s my favorite poem.”

And this totally cracked me up.

Her oldest friend Bruce Vilanch described their first conversation after she awoke from her coma: “I had to explain who Sarah Palin was,” he said with an ironic laugh. “I told her it was a character Tina Fey does. I told her, ‘This is McCain’s running mate,’ and she gave me a look of complete horror.”

Hopefully one day I will get my chance to meet Hyler.

Miraculously, She’s Alive (Jewish Journal)
Hyler’s courage lauded with award (Variety)