Edward P. Lozzi, a longtime Hollywood publicist, has died. He was 77 years old.
After a 49-year career in public relations, Luzzi died on April 22 after a short illness, according to publisher and longtime friend Roger Neal. “Ed was a great publicist. We have worked together on projects on and off for the past 45 years. He was my oldest friend in Hollywood,” Neil said in a statement.
Lozzi ran his own Beverly Hills public relations firm, Edward Lozzi & Associates, and represented notable figures including Jon Voight, Milton Berle, Larry Hagman, Debbie Reynolds, Lou Ferrigno, Shirley Jones, Rudy Vallee, Melvin Bailey, and for more than 25 years until she was murdered in 2003 by record producer Phil Spector, Lana Clarkson.
In 2013, Lozzi stood outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to protest the screening of the HBO film. Phil Spector He claimed that the project implied that Clarkson had committed suicide. “To see this movie being made was like a slap in the face,” Lozzi said. THR at that time. “We were very happy to have Phil Spector in prison.”
Lozzi was also a political consultant and worked in media during the Bush 41 presidency out of Los Angeles.
He was born in Hawthorne, New Jersey, to big band musician Virgil Luzzi and Elizabeth Ann Rhodes, the daughter of New Jersey newspaper owner Raymond Lincoln Rhodes.
Lozzi attended Delbarton School for Boys and DePaul High School before being recruited to the University of Tennessee football team. After majoring in business administration, he joined USAF ROTC Knoxville in 1967 and was selected for special operations. Training program during the Vietnam War.
In 1972, Lozzi began working as an underwriter for Hartford Insurance Company in New York and a year later joined the family-owned insurance brokers The Rhodes Agency in New Jersey. He left the insurance business in his native Hawthorne in 1981 to found Edward Lozzi & Associates in Los Angeles after interning at Rogers & Cowan.
His corporate clients have included attorney Bailey, for whom he handled communications relating to landmark legal rulings in early Big Tobacco lawsuits, the DuPont silicone breast implant cases, and the Norplant birth control class action lawsuits, among others.
In 1995, during the OJ Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles, Lozzie was retained by Al Cowlings, the driver of the infamous white Ford Bronco slow-motion police chase seen live on television around the world, and arranged a highly-viewed press conference by Simpson’s old friend.
In 2011, Luzzi and his public relations firm received a Certificate of Merit from the City of Los Angeles at an event where 5th District City Councilman Paul Koretz saluted him for his “outstanding contributions to the community and accomplishments in the entertainment industry… Through your consistent ways and caring actions, you have helped advance the shared goal of making our city a better place to live.”
Survivors include his brother Marco and sisters Rae Ann and Robyn. son Brandon; And his 100-year-old mother. Memorial plans have not been announced.
