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Billy Sammeth, Former Manager To Cher, Joan Rivers Dead At 66
Courtesy Rick Bartalini Presents – Billy Sammeth
Billy Sammeth (r) at a concert from Olivia Newton-John at Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco in 2012.
Billy Sammeth, the former manager of industry titans like Cher, Joan Rivers, and Olivia Newton-John died of pancreatic cancer Monday, his sister has reportedly confirmed. He was 66.
The news was shared by Barbara Sammeth via blog post June 18 according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sammeth got his start writing press releases for Donny Osmond and The Osmond Brothers when he was just 18 and managing their massive licensing empire two years later, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He worked for famed manager Sandy Gallin – who repped the biggest artists of the day including Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Michael Jackson – for 10 years before hanging his own shingle as The Bill Sammath Organization and taking clients Cher, Rivers, and Olivia Newton-John with him.
Among those paying condolences online were KC and The Sunshine Band’s Harry Casey.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Its with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Billy Sammeth RIP doll! Thanks for the memories!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/teamkcsb?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#teamkcsb</a> <a href=”https://t.co/yB5rQ1BdU3″>pic.twitter.com/yB5rQ1BdU3</a></p>— Harry Casey(KC) (@hwcasey) <a href=”https://twitter.com/hwcasey/status/1008725118405763073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>June 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Former figure skating champion and Olympian Tae Babilonia also took to Twitter to remember Sammeth:
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>He was one of a kind & I can say that I got to experience being managed by him for about 3 months ~ Never a dull moment & some of the best legendary Hollywood adventure stories ever! R.I.P. Billy Sammeth <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bumper?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Bumper</a></p>— Tai Babilonia (@taiskates) <a href=”https://twitter.com/taiskates/status/1008728000920109067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>June 18, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Early on Sammeth worked as PR for the Osmonds, and was still managing K.C. and the Sunshine Band several years ago, according to the Daily Beast.
He was nominated for Pollstar’s Personal Manager Of The Year award in 1985.
Sammeth got into a legal battle with his former client Rivers in 2010 after she portrayed him as a “missing manager,” in a film, according to TMZ. The matter was settled out of court.