RIFT FOURNIER R.I.P.

Rift was one of the feistiest folks I've known, and I've known a few. I met him early in my Hollywood years where he was producing independent film and TV projects. One of the most important things about him in my personal history, not mentioned in this otherwise relatively informative obit, involves how we met. My old friend Hubert Selby Jr. was working for Rift when I visited him at the L.A. office Rift had at that time (1983) which he was whizzing around in in his wheelchair making wisecracks at my expense and we'd just met.

I remember working for him at one point myself, writing a film I believe that never got made, or maybe, as was more often the case, I was script doctoring and it did get made (ah, memory). Every time I ran into him over the years that followed he would enthusiastically and/or sarcastically describe his latest project, no matter how "big" or "small" in Hollywood terms, with the same clarity and commitment. He was one of a kind in the Hollywood I knew and made it a richer and more fun place to work. He will be missed.