Nanci Ryder, the beloved Hollywood publicist who co-founded BWR Public Relations, on Thursday lost her courageous six-year battle with ALS. She was 67.
Ryder died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles at 2:24 p.m., CAA partner Bryan Lourd, her longtime friend, said.
Ryder was one of the first power publicists in Hollywood, earning the title long before it was part of the show business lexicon thanks to a no-nonsense approach, enviable client list and an office at BWR where she mentored and groomed some of the industry’s top publicists working today.
During her 30-year-plus career, Ryder represented Renée Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon — both of whom received Academy Awards with her guidance — Courteney Cox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael J. Fox, Jennifer Lopez, Emmy Rossum, Viggo Mortensen, Blake Lively, Don Diamont, Johnny Galecki, Matt LeBlanc, Rose McGowan and Terrence Howard, among dozens of others.
Clients aside, Ryder may be best remembered for how she faced and fought ALS after receiving a diagnosis in 2014 and for how she rallied supporters in the search for a cure. Close friends, however, will counter that their memories of her center on a wicked sense of humor and reliance on swear words — both delivered with an unmistakable Long Island accent — and a love of soap operas, current events, designer purses, shopping, dog Desi, cats Pants, Thelma and Fluffy and a career that was a decades-long passion.
Her circle became known as Team Nanci, a committed group of industry players numbering in the hundreds that regularly showed up to raise money for the ALS Association Golden West Chapter via annual Walk to Defeat ALS events. Thanks to that support and the inimitable Ryder, they raised raised more than $820,000 in the fight.
Team Nanci consisted of clients-turned-friends led by Zellweger, Cox, Witherspoon and Diamont along with Lourd, Kevin Huvane, Tom and Kathy Maffei, Nick Kiriazis, Tracey Cunningham, Slate PR’s Simon Halls and husband Matt Bomer, Viewpoint’s Jennifer Allen and Melissa Kates, Jay Schwartz, Lynda Dorf, Brandon Creed, John Chino, Michele and Simon Wise, Michael Chiklis, Justine Bateman and many others, all of whom attended the ALS walks to cheer on Ryder and, later, speak on her behalf when she lost the ability to do so herself.
Other key members of the team included USC’s Justin Ichida, a leading stem cell researcher who praised Ryder’s crew for aiding advancements while he oversaw a team out for a cure; members of the Golden West chapter, who worked closely in coordinating efforts; doctors Gerald Berke, Merit Cudkowicz, Robert Baloh and Michael Brousseau; and Ryder’s round-the-clock live-in nurses, twins Jerome and Jerald.