Ronni Chasen

Called "Hollywood's ultimate old-school publicist" by Los Angeles Times film critic Patrick Goldstein in an article posted about Ms. Chasen's murder early on the afternoon of 16 November 2010 .

Chasen was shot early in the morning of 16 November 2010, at approximately 12:28 a.m. WST, as she was driving home from Hollywood premiere of her newest publicity project, the musical Burlesque (film). Neighbors near the intersection of Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard in the city of Beverly Hills originally noted hearing gunshots in front of their homes but more calls came in to the 911 call center a few moments later stating that a late model, black Mercedes-Benz had ran the curb, hit and toppled one of the distinctive, historic cast-iron street lamps. When police crews arrived, they found Chasen slumped in the driver's seat, the steering wheel airbag inflated, blood emanating from her nose and chest area, in and out of consciousness with the front seat passenger side glass shattered. The 64-year-old Ms. Chasen was pronounced dead after she was taken to Cedars Sinai Hospital .

The investigation, according to the Beverly Hills Police Department, is in its early stage, but department sources have stated that Chasen received approximately five gunshot wounds to the chest, which caused her to lose control of her vehicle just after turning from Sunset Boulevard onto Whittier Drive.

Chasen is known in the Hollywood for her PR work on such films as Driving Miss Daisy, On Golden Pond, the upcoming second film in the popular Michael Douglas Wall Street movie franchise Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps for which she was pushing for Oscar recognition for Mr. Douglas in his role as the money hungry, risk averse characterGordon Gekko . In addition to formerly being named the Senior Vice President for Publicity at MGM in 1993 , currently Ms. Chasen owned the PR firm, Chasen & Co. in which she represented many different types of talent, but specifically was drawn to artists who composed music for films - artists such as Trevor Horn, Mark Isham, David Newman and brother Thomas Newman .

Chasen began her career in Hollywood nearly 30 years earlier working for the famous b-movie factory American International Pictures and, according to Los Angeles Times film critic Patrick Goldstein, reminiced about her early years while working with George Burns on the hit 1970s film The Sunshine Boys and coaching the budding star John Travolta on how to handle his first interview after his fame first broke during the hit television sitcom, Welcome Back Kotter .

Chasen is survived by her brother, Larry Cohen, famous in his own right for hit screenplays for such cult favorite B films as It's Alive and The Invaders, teleplays in the early 1960s for the Kraft Mystery Theater who gained later fame for his work in the Blaxploitation film genre popular in the 1970s .