After a long battle with illness, entertainment columnist Nikki Finke passed away on Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Florida. Finke co-founded the trade publication Deadline in 2006 and was instrumental in turning it into a major player in the Hollywood industry. Age-wise, she was 68.
Who is Nikki Finke ?
Finke, who is notoriously private, launched the site as Deadline Hollywood Daily, an always-on Internet version of her popular print column “Deadline Hollywood” for LA Weekly. She wrote about her experiences in the entertainment industry from the inside, and she didn’t shy away from publicly humiliating some of the industry’s biggest stars. A hero to several assistants and below-the-liners, her frequently gnawing, abrasive posts called out improper conduct and miscreants as she saw match, irritating many in the C-suites who were not used to anything less than applause.
Nikki Finke Parents
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Finke, both Jews, gave birth to Finke on December 16, 1953, and the family settled in the affluent community of Sands Point in Nassau County, New York (on Long Island). She went on to Wellesley College, where she served as the newspaper’s editor before graduating.
Nikki Finke, at her finest, exemplified the very best of what it means to be a journalist; she was fearless in her pursuit of truth, writing with an incisive style and an enigmatic spark. Penske Media Corporation CEO Jay Penske said of Finke after the company bought her blog in 2009, “She was brash and true. While my relationship with Nikki was never smooth, she stands out as a lifelong standout.
She has been covering the media and entertainment industries’ business, politics, and culture for LA Weekly’s “Deadline Hollywood” column since 2002. Finke purchased the domain name DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com for $14 in March of 2006 so that she could start publishing a daily online entertainment news outlet instead of a weekly newspaper column.
Forbes ranked Finke as the 79th most powerful woman in the world in 2010.
Nikki Finke Social and private life
During their 14 years together, Finke and Jeffrey W. Greenberg were in a committed relationship. They started dating in 1974, got married in 1980, and separated in 1982 year. Her sister Terry Finke Dreyfus, brother-in-law James, and nieces Sarah Greenhill and Diana Leighton will miss her greatly.