Showbiz manager
John Ferriter has died at the age of 59, as
Piers Morgan paid a heartbreaking tribute to him
Piers Morgan's manager and close friend John Ferriter has died at the age of 59.
The celebrity manager, who counted Good Morning Britain host Piers, Jimmy Kimmell and Ryan Seacrest among his famous clients, died last night.
Piers paid tribute to the super-agent in a poignant tweet, sharing a picture of them together at a showbiz event.
He wrote: "RIP John Ferriter, 59. My brilliant manager and ferociously loyal, kind, charismatic & supremely talented friend.
"I trusted him with my life, and he enriched my life so much. Thank you John, for everything you did for me, and for my family."
John also worked as a TV executive and was the worldwide head of non-scripted TV at the William Morris Agency, where he built his name.
He was there for nearly two decades, rising to executive vice president before leaving the company and filing a $25million lawsuit against it, which was later settled.
John stood against the agency's 2009 merger with Endeavor, blasting his colleagues 10 years later in May 2019 for 'driving it into the ground'.
"I wonder how many of those William Morris board members realize how badly they got played when they gave the company away in a merger that didn't need to be done that was also the worst deal in the history of the company," he wrote for Deadline.
"William Morris survived planned trips on the Titanic and the RMS Lusitania. The William Morris Agency survived two world wars, several smaller wars, the Great Depression, a couple recessions and several strikes, but it couldn't survive the greed of a few people who drove it into the ground like a new Boeing 737."
John told the Daily Beast in 2010 he had taken the company for everything it had after being forced out.
"I was constructively terminated," he claimed.
"An announcement was made saying I had resigned. That is not true. I never would have left the agency on my accord. I bled William Morris blue."
John also dabbled in music and had been in bands that opened for Guns N' Roses, REM and The Bangles.
His band The Tearaways were due to play at Los Angeles hotspot Molly Malones next Tuesday before launching their UK tour.
As well as his American clients, John also worked with British stars like Nancy O’Dell, Gemma Collins and Mark Wright.
He also repped reality stars who rose to fame on big US shows like Project Runway, The Biggest Loser, Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Chelsea Lately.
No cause of death has yet been confirmed.