Chris Huvane, respected talent manager, dies at 47

Chris Huvane, a partner at Los Angeles representation firm Management 360 who was praised by many of his clients, died Sunday. He was 47.

“We are devastated beyond words this morning, Chris was simply ‘the best of the best,’” the partners of Management 360 said in a statement. “A brilliant manager, consummate colleague and friend, a rock of our company and our culture, beloved by every single person who ever met him. It’s an incalculable loss and our hearts go out to his family and friends. We are all better for having known Chris, and we commit to honoring his legacy every day forward.”

Friends and colleagues said he apparently took his own life.

Huvane joined the firm in 2010 after leaving his job as senior West Coast editor of GQ magazine. The New York native was named a partner at Management 360 in 2015.

The death was first reported by entertainment industry news outlet Deadline, which said Huvane “had been battling depression for a long time.”

Huvane was a resident of Los Angeles who grew up in Yonkers, N.Y. He got his exposure to the business while working as a bellman at a hotel in Manhattan, where his brothers also had worked.

While carrying suitcases for celebrities, he met actor Julianne Moore, who later became a client, Huvane told “The Homage Podcast.” He moved to L.A. in 2000 and worked in several different roles in entertainment, including as a publicist, magazine editor and actor, before becoming a manager. His acting gigs included playing a waiter in an episode of “Sex and the City,” according to IMDbPro.

His experience as an actor made him a better manager, he said, as did his penchant for speaking his mind.

“I think the most important thing for me is I always have an opinion, and I was always not afraid to share it because there’s not a person on Earth that I’m not afraid to share my opinion with, and it took off from there,” he said during the podcast interview in April 2020.

“Chris Huvane was a bright light, hardworking and humane, loving and so invested in the wellbeing of others,” Moore said in a statement. “He possessed... a sense of humor and intelligence that made every minute spent with him pure pleasure.”

In addition to Moore, Huvane’s clients included actors Margot Robbie, Henry Winkler, Zoey Deutch, and Jensen Ackles. He also managed the late actor Chadwick Boseman, according to IMDbPro.

Winkler on Monday tweeted that he was heartbroken to hear of Huvane’s passing.

“Chris was so thoughtful and knowledgeable and such a compassionate caretaker,” Winkler wrote.

Many people who worked with Huvane described him as a manager who tirelessly advocated for his clients.

Christopher Cantwell, co-creator and co-showrunner of the TV drama “Halt and Catch Fire,” called Huvane “a lionhearted man.”

“He was frank and honest in a business when many are not,” Cantwell tweeted of Huvane, who was his manager for more than 10 years. “He was exceptionally kind, he was remarkably open about his struggles and wore himself on his sleeve. This industry did not deserve a guy like Chris.”

Cantwell said Huvane was instrumental to his career.

“When we wrote HALT, he pounded on our agent’s door because we were nobodies and said, ‘if you don’t pay attention to these guys, I’m taking them somewhere else, because they deserve better,’” Cantwell tweeted.

Several other people who knew Huvane also shared their memories on Twitter.

Huvane is survived by his wife, Cole; father, Martin; and five siblings: Michael, Robert, Stephen, Kevin and Denise Whalen. Stephen Huvane is a partner at Slate PR and Kevin Huvane is a co-chairman at major talent agency Creative Artists Agency.

If you or someone you know is exhibiting warning signs of suicide, seek help from a professional and call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-TALK (8255).

Los Angeles Times staff writer Christie D’Zurilla and researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.