Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentThe Motion Picture & Television Fund, celebrating its 100th anniversary, might be the most active, admired — and most misunderstood — organization in Hollywood.
Silent screen star Mary Pickford started the philanthropic org under the name Motion Picture Relief Fund (it was renamed in 1971).Over the century, entertainment’s biggest heavyweights gave support.
In 1965, Variety reported Elvis Presley’s $125,000 gift, the single biggest donation to that point. The fund has been supported by directors (John Ford to Steven Spielberg, to name a few), actors (Barbara Stanwyck to George Clooney, Jodie Foster and Hugh Jackman) and execs (Samuel Goldwyn to Jim Gianopulos).
Key donors and recipients are behind-the-camera workers; for example, nearly 10,000 individuals received help in 2020 as everyone was hit by COVID. “Part of my hope for the future: Communicating to the industry who we are and what we do,” says Bob Beitcher, MPTF president-CEO. “Probably seven out of 10 people in the industry don’t know who we are.
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