Hollywood is mourning the loss of famed publicist and co-founder of BWR Public Relations, Nanci Ryder, who died at her Los Angeles of home of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) Friday. She was 67. Ryder’s client roster included Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Jessica Parker, Courteney Cox and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Ryder died
According to publicist Lynda Dorf, Ryder was diagnosed in 2014. The neurodegenerative disease gradually claimed her ability to walk, talk, eat and move.
Ryder was born in Orlando, Fla. She studied psychology and anthropology at C.W. Post College and moved to L.A. in 1979, landing a job as a talent agent at David Shapira & Associates. Stints at Goldberg-Ehrlich Public Relations & Management and Michael Levine Public Relations followed, before she formed Nanci Ryder Public Relations in 1984, with Family Ties’ star Michael J. Fox as her first client.
Nanci would build a veritable who’s who of clients after striking out on her own, including Fox, Viggo Mortensen and Reese Witherspoon. Close friend and client Renee Zellweger thanked Ryder in her best actress acceptance speech when she won the Academy Award for Judy this year.
Publicist Carrie Wick of Carrie Wick Public Relations, who was one of Ryder’s protegés, posted a heartbreaking tribute on Facebook. “I remember Nanci walking by my desk one day and stopping dead in her tracks to tell me how beautiful she thought I was. She asked if I was sure I wanted to be a publicist! Made me stammer. She’d do that to you. I couldn’t believe she even knew I existed!
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Client Reese Witherspoon called Ryder a “second mother.” Witherspoon, who met Ryder when she was 19, posted a tribute to Ryder. Taking to Instagram, the star shared several photos of her and Nanci together throughout the years and wrote alongside them: “Sometimes in life, if you are lucky, you meet someone who takes you under their wing and cares for you like a daughter. Nanci Ryder was that other mother to me.
Sarah Michelle Gellar also paid tribute to Ryder on Instagram.
“Nanci survived breast cancer only to be diagnosed with ALS. But till the end she fought with dignity and humor. And was a champion of fighting those battles. In your honor, I will never stop fighting. You presence will be missed Nanci, but your spirit remains with all of us. We love you #nanciryder,” she concluded.
“I never intended to be courageous or inspirational, but according to this award apparently I am,” Ryder once wrote. “So I ask you all today to promise me that — no matter what — that you will never, ever give up. That is another thing that ALS cannot take away — our will to keep going.”
Ryder married and divorced once in her 20s and had no children, siblings or relatives.
SOURCE: LA Times, Hello Magazine
