Terry D. Porter Dies: WGA Agent And Producer Was 73

Terry D. Porter, Writer’s Guild of America agent and founder of The Terry Porter Agency, died Monday, December 7, of heart failure in Sun City West, AZ. He was 73.

His death was announced by his wife Claire Hutchinson.

Since 1990, Porter was a WGA signatory agent, representing screenwriters, producers, composers, and actors through Agape Productions and The Terry Porter Agency. Some of the companies he sold projects to include CBS, NBC, ABC, Turner Network, and Larry Levinson Productions. He represented talent such as producers the Saylors Brothers (Veil of Tears), Chako van Lewen (Piranha), Jack Thompson (Stagecoach), wife Claire Hutchinson (Lucky’s Treasure), among others.

Porter took the position of Chief Executive Officer of Flat Rock Motion Pictures in 2008. He also ran independent record company Flat Rock Records and operated his own music booking agency for several years. Among the individuals with whom he worked were jazz artists Billy Cobham, George Duke and Weather Report and blues artists Yank Rachell and Pat Webb. Terry also managed R&B gospel artist Darlene Day, and Christian gospel artists, Susan Jansen and Alexandria.

He was a distributor of music documentary The Door Is Always Open, the co-executive producer of An Animator’s Life: The Phil Roman Story, and associate producer of Hollywood on Fire.

In the late 1960s, Porter had a brush with pop music success when he temporarily filled in as drummer for a band he met at an underground rock club in Cincinnati. The local group, called the Lemon Pipers, would soon hit the charts with 1968’s “My Green Tambourine.” According to Porter and wife Hutchinson, he played drums on the recording, but was drafted before the album’s release. The album and bubblegum pop history credit Lemon Pipers drummer Bill Albaugh. (Deadline was not able to confirm Porter’s account.)

In his latter years, Porter was involved in the Christian film industry, and as co-owner of Ambassador Communications with his wife, Claire, he was the co-producer of the 2018 Christian comedy film Living the Dream.

Porter is survived by his wife, screenwriter-producer Hutchinson, daughter Shelby Porter-Ely, son Dean Porter, two grandchildren, and brother Fred Porter.