Paul B. Stager Jr, a longtime television legal affairs executive who spent decades at major studios including Warner Bros Television, died Sunday at his Westwood home after a brief illness. He was 96.

A family representative said Stager died peacefully after a brief illness.

Born in 1929 in Delaware, Ohio, he attended Ohio Wesleyan University and later served two years in U.S. Army Intelligence in Germany before earning his law degree from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1956. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar that year and the California Bar in 1961 and went on to specialize in copyright law and TV and motion pictures law.

After early work in private practice and at the National Labor Relations Board, Stager moved his family to Los Angeles in 1959, settling in Sherman Oaks. He joined the Writers Guild’s legal department and later transitioned into studio roles at Screen Gems, Columbia Television and Lorimar. He joined Warner Bros Television after its acquisition of Lorimar and retired in 1999 as SVP Legal Affairs and Administration.

Stager is survived by his daughter, Susan Vandebunt; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. His wife of 70 years, Carol, whom he met at Ohio Wesleyan, died in 2023.

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