David Brown, film producer, magazine editor, short story author, and husband of Helen Gurley Brown, died in New York yesterday. He was 93.

Brown, described as "a bon vivant," "an unusually courtly presence," "fastidious about his attire," and, according to Aaron Sorkin, "the last great gentleman producer," began his career as a journalist before Darryl Zanuck brought him to Hollywood to work in the story department of 20th Century Fox. Brown met his third wife, legendary Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, in Los Angeles. They married in 1959.

Brown and his partner, Richard Zanuck, convinced Spielberg to direct Jaws, and produced The Sting, Cocoon, The Player, A Few Good Men, and (Brown's personal favorite) The Verdict.

(And, supposedly, during his wife's tenure at Cosmo, David Brown was the one writing the saucy coverlines.)

(Pictured: David and Helen Gurley Brown in 1970.)