Jacqueline Avant, a Los Angeles philanthropist and wife of music legend Clarence Avant, was shot and killed in Beverly Hills, California, early Wednesday morning, according to authorities and a Netflix spokeswoman.
Netflix spokeswoman Emily Feingold confirmed that Avant was killed in a shooting. Avant’s daughter Nicole is married to Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO and head of content.
Jacqueline Avant, 81, was a philanthropist and president of Neighbors of Watts in addition to serving on the board of directors of the International Student Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Her husband, Clarence Avant, is known as “the godfather of black music” and was recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris were among those who paid tribute to him in a video made for the ceremony in October.
Nicole Avant, who served as the United States Ambassador to the Bahamas from 2009 to 2011, is now a film production company whose work includes the 2019 Netflix documentary about her father “The Black Godfather.” In an interview with NBC News about the documentary, she praised his mother.
“My mom is really the one who gave my father and our family the love, passion and importance of the arts, culture and entertainment,” he said. “Although my father was part of it, making all the agreements, my mother was the one who gave me my love for literature, my love for cinema, my love for telling stories.”
Beverly Hills police had not identified Jacqueline Avant as the victim of the shooting. At the moment they have only said that there are detectives investigating the incident in which a person died.
The coroner’s office has also not officially identified the person, but said the victim was a woman in her 80s.
The suspect, or suspects, escaped the scene and has not been located, Beverly Hills police said.
Authorities received a call at 2:23 am reporting a shooting. They found a person wounded by a gunshot who was later pronounced dead. The shooting was reported on the street where the Avant’s live, according to electoral records.
The police chief was to hold a press conference later in the day.
TMZ first reported Avant’s death.
The Avant’s married in 1967 and had two children, Nicole Avant and Alexander Du Bois Avant.
Clarence Avant, 90, is a Grammy Award-winning executive, concert promoter and manager who has mentored and helped the careers of artists such as Bill Withers, Little Willie John, LA Reid, Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. . He founded Sussex Records and Tabu Records in the 1960s and 1970s, was director of Motown Records in the 1990s.
Basketball icon Earvin “Magic” Johnson wrote on Twitter that he and his wife were “devastated” by the news of Avant’s death, calling her “one of our closest friends.”
“This is the saddest day in our lives,” he wrote.
Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat, said she was saddened by the violence.
“Ms. Avant was a force for compassion and empowerment at the local and national level for decades, as well as a model of service and giving to those who needed it most,” Bass wrote on Twitter.
___
Dalton and Dazio reported from Los Angeles.
–
