The urbane Calley, 66, is a blast from Hollywood’s past. He spent 10 years as president of Warner Brothers, only to announce at the age of 50 that he was retiring to Fishers Island, the billionaires’ haven on Long Island Sound. Living there in the winter and sailing his boat to Europe in the summer, Calley was perfectly happy never reading a newspaper, watching television or going to the movies, he told friends. But that’s also what scared him back into civilization in the early 1990s, as a producer with his friend Mike Nichols, and later as president of United Artists.
Calley brought UA back from oblivion, first by re-inventing the James Bond franchise with ““GoldenEye,’’ then by backing ““Birdcage,’’ which Nichols directed. ““He turned UA around on a pittance. Unheard of!’’ says Nichols, adding, ““And he enjoyed it.’’ Calley gave MGM/UA enough cachet to attract a $1.3 billion buyout bid this summer from Kirk Kerkorian. That deal, set to close this week, report- edly hasn’t been affected by news of Calley’s negotiations with Sony.
