Herbert Brenner; Actors’ Agent, Executive

Herbert Brenner, 86, a Hollywood agent and executive who promoted the careers of such entertainers as Shelley Winters and Robert Taylor. Brenner was a vice president of MCA and later became president of General Artists Corp. During his lengthy career as an agent, he also worked with directors Mervyn LeRoy and Raoul Walsh. Winters, who won an Academy Award in 1960 for “The Diary of Anne Frank,” recently recalled for People magazine that she upset Brenner when he arrived to pick her up for the Oscar ceremonies. “I made him take Polaroids of me in two dresses to see which one I looked the thinnest in,” she said. “Herb was stunned that I wasn’t ready . . . but I had to look at these Polaroids.” Brenner taught at USC for several years. On Saturday in Los Angeles of cardiac failure.