PASSINGS: Marvin Minoff, Jack Kissell, Bernard Wynne

Marvin Minoff

Producer on Frost Nixon interviews

Marvin Minoff, 78, a film and TV producer whose credits include the movies “Patch Adams” and “Dominick and Eugene” and David Frost’s broadcast interviews with former President Nixon, died Nov. 11 at his Los Angeles home, his family announced. The cause was not disclosed.

Minoff had been married since 1980 to actress Bonnie Franklin; they met that year on the set of the TV movie “Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger,” which Franklin appeared in and Minoff produced.

A former talent agent, Minoff formed a production company in 1985 with actor Mike Farrell. Together they produced the feature films “Dominick and Eugene,” a 1988 drama featuring Tom Hulce and Ray Liotta, and “Patch Adams,” a 1998 release starring Robin Williams in the title role of a doctor who employs unorthodox methods.

Minoff and Farrell also co-produced TV movies including “Incident at Dark River,” “Silent Motive” and “Sins of the Mind.”

Minoff got his start as a producer with Frost’s David Paradine Television Inc. The pair made a splash in 1977 with a syndicated series of interviews that the British talk-show host conducted with former President Nixon three years after his resignation in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Born June 26, 1931, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Minoff attended Syracuse University and New York University before serving in the Army, his family said.

He worked for the William Morris Agency and International Famous Artists as an agent before turning to producing.

Jack Kissell

Character actor, AA fixture in L.A.

Jack Kissell, 79, a character actor who was well known in the Alcoholics Anonymous movement in Los Angeles, died Thursday at the Little Company of Mary Transitional Care Center in Torrance, his family said. He had Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

Kissell had small parts on television, including appearances on the sitcom “Life With Bonnie,” and in local theater productions.

Born Sept. 24, 1930, Kissell grew up in South Bend, Ind., and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1952. After serving in the Army he met his future wife, Jean, and they married and started a family.

He became a high school drama teacher in New Rochelle, N.Y., and an English professor at Ohio Northern University before moving to California in the late 1960s.

He turned to AA in 1971. Although those who work in the recovery movement generally maintain anonymity, Kissell was a familiar figure and sponsor in the community.

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Bernard Wynne, a landscape artist known for his realistic paintings of California scenes, died Sunday at his home in Sierra Madre, his family announced. He was 89.

-- times staff and wire reports news.obits@latimes.com