Rick Steiner

Richard Harris Steiner (November 8, 1946 – November 3, 2016) was a five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, whose hits included The Producers, Hairspray, and Jersey Boys. Biography Steiner was born in Cincinnati, to Philip Steiner, a founder of Kenner Products, the maker of the Easy-Bake Oven and Play-Doh; and Desirée (Harris) Steiner. Desirée Steiner was the daughter of Desirée Lazard, a Broadway actress, and Harry Harris, a former boxer known as the Human Hairpin. The two met in 1906 when she was appearing as Tessy Tarrytown in George M. Cohan's "Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway," at the New Amsterdam Theater; he was the theater's manager. Steiner had one brother, Corky. Steiner acted in community theater productions as a child. He attended Camp Thunderbird in Bemidji, Minn., where he met fellow camper Rocco Landesman, who would become his business partner in later years. Steiner graduated from Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, and went on to earn a BA in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1968, and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1970. Steiner's marriage to the former Jan Steele ended in divorce, but the two continued to live together. They had two sons, Ace and Duke, and a daughter, Jacklyn Montgomery.