FRED OTASH The True Story of a HOLLYWOOD FIXER

BACK IN THE GOLDEN YEARS, WHEN A CELEBRITY GOT INTO BIG TROUBLE, ONLY ONE MAN COULD HELP

- Fortune Benatar

Late one August night in 1962, actor Peter Lawford arrived at the LA apartment of private detective Fred Otash in a sorry state. “I think Mari lyn is dead,” he blurted to the man Hollywood trusted to make all their most scan dalous problems go away.

A new book, The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn (due out April 16), seeks to tell the real story of Otash, a former LA cop turned private detective to the stars. “Fred was larger than life and stranger than fiction,” Manfred Westphal, who wrote the book with Josh Young, tells Closer. In fact, fictional characters, including TV’s Ray Donovan and China town’s J.J. Gittes — as well as several books by author James Ellroy — have been inspired by Otash.