(L.A.) Don Behrns, 84, Ended His Life

Case Number: 2023-01694

Los Angeles County is reporting the death of a 84-year-old Caucasian male that occurred at a residence.

The coroner’s office has identified the man as Don Behrns.

Manner of Death: Suicide

Cause of Death: Gunshot Wound of Head

RIP DON P BEHRNS (April 19, 1938 – February 11, 2023)

Formal pronouncement of death was made on Saturday at 2:04 a.m.

The decedent was a production manager and producer, known for Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980) and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Awards as part of the team at L.A. Law (1991-1992 season).

Comment
byu/CreamyyBurnr from discussion
infridaythe13th

“My first film job was in the early ’70s, as a Production Assistant on a blaxpolitation movie called Candy Tangerine Man. It was about a guy who lived a double life – businessman during the day, and at night he was out pimping and shooting up guys. And just a couple of films later, I had worked my way up to Production Manager, and that’s how I met the late Debra Hill, who was a script supervisor on some of those films. And I put up with her nonsense, so one day she called me saying, ‘I’m living with this guy named John Carpenter and he has $300,000 to make a movie called Halloween. You want to production manage it for me? I’m producing.’ I said, ‘What !? You’ve never produced before!’ But she was a smart lady, I ended up working on both Halloween and The Fog.

I had a mutual acquaintance of Tom McLoughlin who recommended me for Jason Lives, so I met Tom, and Frank Mancso, Jr. It was my first producing shot. It’s funny – I never had a particular affinity for horror films. It just sort of happened that way. Once you start doing them and a few become successful, people look to you to do more. And I remember Tom had this marathon of Friday movies right after we got to Atlanta – all five in a row. I couldn’t separate one from the other! Although the ironic thing is that I guess Danny Stenmann had directed Part V. I did something called The Unseen, which Danny took his name off of. And it’s a good thing he vanished off the face of the Earth after Part V. He was an asshole to work with and a very incompetent director.” – page 160, Crystal Lake Memories