text: Hollywood legend David Picker, who helped bring James Bond novels to screen, dies | Regina Leader-Post
  Hollywood legend David Picker, who helped bring James Bond novels to screen, dies
  This undated publicity photo provided by United Artists and Danjaq, LLC shows Sean Connery, left, as James Bond in a scene from the 1963 film, "From Russia With Love."	United Artists and Danjaq, LLC / AP Photo
  Legendary Hollywood film producer David Picker has died, aged 87.
  The movie mogul, who helped bring Ian Fleming's James Bond novels to cinemas, passed away in New York on Saturday after a battle with colon cancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
  Bosses at the MGM studio, where he worked as the head of their United Artists subsidiary in the 1960s, paid tribute to him in a tweet.
  "We are saddened to hear that a member of the United Artists family has passed away. David Picker was a true visionary who brought iconic films to theatres such as the James Bond franchise," their post read.
  After serving in the U.S. Army, Picker joined United Artists in 1956 and quickly rose through the ranks, first becoming an assistant and then the head of production.
  During his time there, he secured the rights to Fleming's spy novels, and pushed for Sean Connery's casting as the first 007 in the 1962 movie Dr. No.
  Additionally, Picker helped bring The Beatles to the silver screen in films like A Hard Day's Night and Help!, and championed Tony Richardson's Oscar-winning 1963 adaptation of Henry Fielding's 18th century novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
  Towards the end of the decade, the executive also backed groundbreaking projects like Women in Love, for which Glenda Jackson won an Academy Award for Best Actress; and Midnight Cowboy, the first X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
  He left United Artists in 1973, joining Paramount as president of motion pictures three years later, where he greenlit 1970s classics Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
  Picker, who headed Columbia Pictures too, helped launch comedian Steve Martin's film career by independently producing his breakthrough movie The Jerk. He also backed several of Woody Allen's early films.
  The producer is survived by his wife, Sandra Jetton, as well as his sister Jean Picker Firstenberg, a former president of the American Film Institute.
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