Frank A. Olson, who as a prime government of Hertz forged the working again O.J. Simpson because the star of the corporate’s commercials — a company marriage that shined up each events and that lasted 20 years, till Mr. Simpson was charged in a double murder in 1994 — died at his residence in Palm Seaside, Fla., on Wednesday, the identical day Mr. Simpson died. Mr. Olson was 91.
The trigger was problems of Covid, his sons, Christopher and Blake, mentioned.
The coincidental timing of the deaths of Mr. Olson, who had steered Hertz via years of company turbulence, and Mr. Simpson, the athlete turned pitchman turned notorious prison defendant, linked the 2 males in a manner that Mr. Olson had as soon as embraced however that he later distanced himself from.
Greater than enterprise companions, Mr. Olson and Mr. Simpson, each San Francisco natives, solid an alliance, starting within the Seventies, that spoke of that mutually helpful zone the place company and social life intertwine. Mr. Olson, an avid golfer, sponsored Mr. Simpson for membership within the non-public Arcola Nation Membership in Paramus, N.J., the place in 1992 Mr. Simpson, a former Heisman Trophy winner and Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer, grew to become the primary Black member.
In a letter that Mr. Simpson left at his Los Angeles residence earlier than his arrest within the stabbing murders of his former spouse, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her pal Ronald L. Goldman, he listed pals he was sending “love and due to.” Mr. Olson was considered one of them.
“I took him locations the place I feel only a few Black males had ever been,” Mr. Olson mentioned within the acclaimed 2016 documentary “O.J.: Made in America.”
Mr. Simpson was 76 when he died of most cancers at his residence in Las Vegas.
The thought of that includes him in Hertz commercials to represent speedy service, starting in 1974, originated with the corporate’s advert company. However as a result of Mr. Simpson was Black and most Hertz clients the place white businessmen, the selection made the company nervous, in accordance with a 1994 article in The Washington Publish. So the choice was kicked as much as Mr. Olson, who on the time was government vice chairman and normal supervisor of the rental-car division. (The corporate additionally rented vans.)
Mr. Olson authorised. The advertisements, that includes Mr. Simpson hurtling via airports on his technique to a rental automobile, have been successful. Hertz claimed that the marketing campaign lifted gross sales in its fierce rivalry with Avis and different opponents.
Mr. Olson continued to personally negotiate Mr. Simpson’s contracts, which expanded to incorporate private appearances. The 2 performed in golf foursomes with main Hertz shoppers, and throughout the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Mr. Simpson and his spouse hosted a lavish social gathering for Hertz executives at their property within the Brentwood neighborhood.
In 1989, Mr. Simpson reached out to Mr. Olson after he was charged with assaulting his spouse on New Yr’s Day. Police had discovered Ms. Simpson hiding within the bushes outdoors her residence, badly crushed.
On the phone, Mr. Olson mentioned years later, Mr. Simpson performed down the incident. After Mr. Simpson’s no-contest plea to battery fees generated scant publicity, Hertz stored him on as its superstar pitchman.
“We regard it as a non-public matter” between the Simpsons, a Hertz spokesman mentioned on the time.
5 years later, on the night time Ms. Simpson and Mr. Goldman have been murdered outdoors her condominium, Mr. Simpson was scheduled to journey to Chicago to play golf with Hertz executives and shoppers. He was arrested a number of days later.
The corporate shortly introduced that it was dropping him. Nor was the connection rekindled after his acquittal in a prison trial that riveted the nation and uncovered the polarized views of Black and white People concerning the prison justice system.
Later, when Mr. Simpson was discovered liable in a lawsuit and ordered to pay the victims’ households $33.5 million, Mr. Olson was a witness. He testified that when Mr. Simpson referred to as him in 1989 about his arrest on battery fees, Mr. Simpson lied concerning the severity of the assault.
“If I had any concept on the time that this was the circumstance that it was, O.J. Simpson would by no means have labored one other day for Hertz,” Mr. Olson testified, as quoted by The Related Press.
Frank Olson was born Frank Albert Johnson on July 19, 1932, in San Francisco to Fred and Edith Mary (Hazeldine) Johnson. His mom, an immigrant from England who labored as a stenographer, had a sequence of husbands, together with Alfred Olson, a railway conductor, who adopted Frank.
Along with his sons, Mr. Olson is survived by his spouse, Sarah Olson, whom he married in 1957; a daughter, Kim Olson; and 7 grandchildren.
Mr. Olson started his profession within the rental automobile enterprise on the age of 18 as an evening supervisor at San Francisco Worldwide Airport.
Following his commencement from Metropolis Faculty of San Francisco, he based a automobile rental enterprise of his personal. He bought it to Hertz in 1964 and joined the corporate’s ranks.
He shortly ascended the company escalator: He was put answerable for Hertz operations in California and Arizona; moved east to go the New York Metropolis division in 1967; was named Japanese regional vice chairman two years later; and have become normal supervisor of all Hertz rental-car operations within the U.S. in 1970.
In 1974, he joined the board of Hertz, then owned by the RCA Company. In 1977, he was named Hertz’s chief government. In 1980, he grew to become chairman.
When Hertz was bought in 1985 to UAL Inc., the father or mother of United Airways, Mr. Olson was made a UAL board member. He later grew to become chairman of the corporate — by then renamed Allegis — and presided over a stormy interval in 1987, preventing an try by United’s pilots to take over the corporate.
That yr, Ford Motor Firm paid $1.2 billion for Hertz. Mr. Olson stayed on as chairman. He retired as chief government in 1999 however retained the title of nonexecutive chairman.
His sons mentioned he by no means spoke with or about Mr. Simpson after the court docket circumstances involving the 1994 murders.
Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
