Oscars 2003

Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Martin Richards, Chicago Producer and Oscar Winner, Dies

Originally posted 11/27/2012 08:55AM

Martin Richards, a Broadway and Hollywood showman whose own life was often as flamboyant and warmhearted as his many productions, died of cancer Monday at his Upper East Side New York home. He was 80.

Winning the Best Picture Oscar for his movie musical Chicago at the 2003 Academy Awards – he had also produced the original Broadway version in 1975 – Richards had to hold back the tears as he recalled those he had worked with on the show, including the late legendary director-choreographer Bob Fosse and Richards's late producing partner and wife, Mary Lea Johnson, of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company family.