Producer of ‘Reality Bites’ and ‘Any Day Now’ TV movies, Sheldon Pinchuk, passes away at the age of 84

Sheldon Pinchuk, partner in the Finnegan-Pinchuk Company, which produced more than 40 TV movies during the genre’s 1980s-90s heyday as well as TV series Any Day Now and Northern Exposure and features Reality Bites and The Fabulous Baker Boys, died Aug. 28 of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Calabasas. He was 84. After getting a Bachelor’s and law degrees from UCLA, Pinchuk began his career as a business affairs executive at NBC. While working there, he earned an additional degree from UCLA’s film school and segued into a programming role. Stints at David Dortort’s company and as Head of Development at Warner Brothers followed before Pinchuk made another Hollywood career shift, becoming an agent at CAA. There, he represented the husband-and-wife producing team of William and Patricia Finnegan. Based on his lifelong love of aviation, Pinchuk pitched them an idea that became his first TV movie, the 1984 Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac, and the trio launched a producing partnership that flourished for more than two decades. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, the Finnegan-Pinchuk Company, housed in the iconic building at the corner of Coldwater Canyon and Ventura Blvd., produced 50-some MOWs, features and TV series. Five of them were nominated for Emmys, and twelve have been accepted into the Library of Congress as works of cultural or historical significance. These include TV movie Amos, starring Kirk Douglas; miniseries The Atlanta Child Murders, featuring Morgan Freeman in his first leading role; and miniseries Lincoln, starring Mary Tyler Moore and Sam Waterston. William Finnegan died in 2008, also of Parkinson’s. Pinchuk is survived by Barbara, his wife of 57 years, his 3 children, including TV executive Julie McNamara, 4 grandchildren and a slew of friends and former colleagues who remember him as a kind and graceful man known for his great wit, intelligence and integrity. The funeral service will be held at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, Sept. 8 at 11:00. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the John and Julie McNamara Fund for Leukemia Research at City of Hope at cityofhope.org/Sheldon.