Madeline Amgott, a public television producer and one of the first female producers in TV news, died July 19 in New York. The cause of death was lymphoma, according to the New York Times. She was 92.
Amgott began her producing career in the 1950s, at a time when few women were working in TV news. In the ’50s and ’60s she produced for CBS News and a local news program for a commercial New York station. Decades later, she produced the 1987 PBS documentary series In Search of the Constitution with Bill Moyers.
In an email, Moyers described Amgott as “a fine producer, a very good woman.”
The winner of several awards, including multiple Emmys and Peabodys, Amgott also worked on CBS’s 60 Minutes and 30 Minutes and NBC’s Not for Women Only throughout her career. She returned to public TV in 2003 with the documentary Hans Hofmann: Artist/Teacher, Teacher/Artist, about the influential painter, which she directed and executive-produced for her production house, Amgott Productions. Robert De Niro narrated the film.
“With that husky voice of hers, she would announce that ‘that’s the way it has to be,’ and there was no arguing — she was right,” said Karl Katz, executive director of Muse Film, which distributed Hoffman. “She has a great track record, especially in leading the television world to accept women on an equal basis,” he wrote in an email.
Amgott also handled public relations for the National Organization for Women.