Veteran Hollywood producer and studio executive Raymond Wagner has died at the age of 88.

He passed away from natural causes on 12 March (14), but his family only announced the news on Thursday (10Apr14).

Wagner began his career as a producer in the early 1960s, working on small screen pilots and The Hanged Man, which was reportedly the second ever made for Tv movie broadcast in the U.S., according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He later produced films like 1968's Petulia and 1970's Loving and Tom Hanks comedy Turner & Hooch in 1989. His other credits include Chuck Norris' Code of Silence (1985), Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds' Rent-a-Cop (1987) and Snow Day with Chevy Chase in 2000.

Wagner was also famous for hiring former actress Sherry Lansing, who he met on the set of Loving after she suggested a few script changes to the screenplay.

He gave her a job as a script reader a couple of years later, during his time at Mgm studios, and she quickly rose through the ranks, eventually taking over as head of 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures.