Richard Shepherd, who produced Breakfast At Tiffany's, passed way at the age 86 on Tuesday night.
Shepherd's wife, Patricia, confirmed his passing with The Hollywood Reporter and said that he had been ill for a long time.
He started his career in Hollywood as an independent film producer, being involved in such films as Hanging Tree, Love in a Goldfish Bowl and Fugitive Kind - which starred Marlon Brando.
He said on the audio commentary for Tiffany's that Paramount's head of production had tried to get the song "Moon River" replaced, but Shepherd and Martin Jurow said, "Over our dead bodies" and the song stayed in.
In a 1977 New York Times interview, he spoke about how tough the filmmaking industry is and said that "you rely on your gut feeling." He added that "They pay ballplayers a lot of money for hitting .333; I'd pay anybody a lot of money if they could be right 33.3 percent of the time in this business."
In addition to producing films and also being the head of producing for a team for both MGM and Warner Bros, he also founded the Artists Agency, reports Deadline. He spent two decades there.
Shepherd also spent time in the Army during World War II, in between working in the film industry as an agent.