Steve Mensch Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Steve Mensch, who was the president and manager of general operations for Tyler Perry Studios, died in a plane crash on Friday, December 6. He was 62.
“We are incredibly saddened by the passing of our dear friend, Steve Mensch,” a spokesperson for Tyler Perry Studios told NBC News in a statement. “Steve was a cherished member of our team for more than 8 years and well-beloved in the community of Atlanta.”
The message continued, “It is hard to imagine not seeing him smiling throughout the halls. We will miss him dearly. Our heart goes out to his family as we all send them our prayers.”
Mensch, who is survived by his wife and three children, had been piloting a single-seat plane on Friday night, which crashed on a road in Homosassa, Florida.
Hollywood mourned many celebrities in 2024. Speed Racer star Christian Oliver (born Christian Klepser) died at the age of 51 during a fatal plane crash on January 5. Oliver was traveling home from a Caribbean vacation with his two daughters — Madita and Annik, whom he shared with wife Jessica Klepser — on January 4. […]
The Citrus County Sheriff’s office later identified Mensch as the sole occupant on the single-engine airplane, NBC News reports. Law enforcement initially closed down the highway.
“Deputies with the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office are on the scene of a small-engine aircraft accident near the intersection of HWY 19 and Longfellow St. in Homosassa,” a Facebook post read. “At this time, southbound lanes in the area are closed and traffic is being directed. Please avoid this area if possible and take another route — delays can be expected.”
The lanes were reopened by 2:20 a.m. ET on Saturday, December 7.
Mensch joined Tyler Perry Studios in 2016, shortly after the company repurposed an Atlanta-area army base into a film lot. It is now one of the largest studio spaces in Hollywood.
“What we’re doing here at Tyler Perry Studios hasn’t been done in a hundred years. We’re building a major motion picture studio,” Mensch previously explained in a 2019 interview for Paramount. “I feel like I’m on the ground with a legend.”
Perry, now 55, added at the time that he had “no idea the magnitude of how big it could get.”
“I get to fill this space with all the dreams and ideas that are in my head,” Perry said.
Tyler Perry Studios was previously run out of a 30-acre lot, which it quickly outgrew.
“I took the ride out here and I immediately saw the vision and all that it could be,” he told Today during a January 2020 tour of the 12 studio spaces. “My imagination is insane, man. When I’m starting to write a show, I really just focus in. I can hear those people and what they want to say.”
Perry has yet to publicly address Mensch’s death.
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