American record company executive, the President of Motown. A former concert-booking agent, De Passe started as creative assistant to Barry Gordy when she was 21. She produced several hit records in her 13 years in the music division, with her most notable coup that of persuading Gordy to sign the Jackson Five in 1968, an unknown group featuring nine-year-old Michael Jackson. She earned an Oscar nomination in 1972 for screenwriting “Lady Sings the Blues” and during the 1980s and 1990s, won Emmys and Emmy nominations for a string of Motown-related variety specials such as “Motown 25.”
In 1968 she was booking bands for clubs when Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown Records, hired her as his creative assistant. As her mentor, he taught her there is more to value than dollars, such as the value in doing good work, creating groundbreaking and satisfying entertainment. She soon built a reputation for spotting talent and being an active champion of creativity. In the late 1960s she molded the careers of the Jackson 5 and the Commodores. During her career, de Passe has been more occupied with the creative process than the financial payoff.
In 1980, Gordy made her president of Motown Productions, the high-risk field of movies and TV, near the top of Hollywood’s mostly white, mostly male elite. Managing the TV and film unit, she said “I was planted in a garden that allowed me to grow.” Over the next decade she propelled it into prominence and by 1986 Harvard Business School published the first of two case studies on her open, nurturing leadership style. In February 1989 she won rave reviews for her mini-series “Lonesome Dove” for which she collected a pocketful of awards – an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Peabody.
In November 1998 her latest project, “The Temptations” appeared on NBC as a mini-series.
De Passe married actor Paul Le Mat.
Link to Wikipedia biography