Jerry Ford Passes Away

Jerry Ford - www.huffingtonpost.com

Jerry Ford, the man who founded one of the top modeling agencies in the world, has died from complications from endocarditis, or inflammation of the heart. He was 83.

As far as modeling agencies go, it was Ford who established many of the systems that are in place in most modeling agencies today. Aside from introducing a system for collecting fees for models and agents, he was also the first to draw up contracts for models to exclusively represent certain brands and therefore earn much higher fees, like the one Lauren Hutton signed in 1974 to be the face of Revlon.

For decades, Ford's agency, which he co-founded with wife Eileen in 1946, handled the careers of such names as Christie Brinkley, Brooke Shields, Candice Bergen and Jane Fonda.

He is survived by his wife and four children.

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