Frank Mancuso Sr., who rose from jobs as a theater usher and film buyer in Buffalo, New York, to become the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and then MGM, has died. He was 93.

Mancuso died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles of complications from cancer, his family announced.

Survivors include his son, Frank Mancuso Jr., who, while often working for his father, produced five Friday the 13th films as well as Species (1995), John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998) and Stigmata (1999).

The elder Mancuso, who spent nearly three decades with Paramount, was the rare studio chieftain to have come from the ranks of marketers.

He was serving a 20-month stint as president of Paramount's motion picture group when Martin Davis, chairman and CEO of parent conglomerate Gulf   Western, selected him over Michael Eisner to take over the flagging studio in September 1984.

Mancuso replaced Barry Diller, who had abruptly left to assume control of 20th Century Fox. Eisner, Diller's second in command, departed for Disney when he didn't get promoted, and he was soon followed out the door by another rising young executive, Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Mancuso, however, hired former Universal exec Ned Tanen to serve as president of production, re-signed Eddie Murphy to a lucrative contract and struck a long-term deal with producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Paramount adopted a tentpole philosophy and finished first at the box office in 1986 and '87, finding success with Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, The Golden Child, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Children of a Lesser God in 1986 - when it had a 22 percent domestic market share - and Fatal Attraction, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Untouchables and Eddie Murphy Raw in 1987. (Other hits like 1988's Coming to America, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and 1990's Ghost followed.)

On the television side, the studio launched The Arsenio Hall Show, Entertainment Tonight, Cheers, Family Ties and Star Trek: The Next Generation under his watch.

In the wake of the expensive 1990 sequel misfires as The Two Jakes and The Godfather Part I
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