Biography

Ronni Chasen was born Veronica Cohen in Kingston, New York. She always harbored childhood ambitions to be a publicist after Roy Rogers and Dale Evans made a personal appearance in Madison Square Garden. Ronnie shook hands with Evans, and later told everyone she saw that she "shook hands with the Queen of the West!", her brother Larry Cohen recalled. In the seventies, she did publicity for Larry Cohen's low budget "blaxspoitation" pictures, later to arrive in Los Angeles as publicity director for American International Pictures in 1978. While working as a partner in Rogers and Cowan, she joined MGM as Worldwide Publicity Chairman in 1993. Her Chasen and Company represented some well-known directors such as Irwin Winkler, Mark Rydell and David Zucker. She led some campaigns to gain Oscars for many films including Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Rocky (1976). Before her tragic, unexpected death in 2010, she was leading a nomination campaign for Michael Douglas in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) and Cher in Burlesque (2010).