Alex Wallau , who rose from working as a director and producer at ABC Sports to calling play by play for boxing matches to advising Disney mainstays ranging from Robert A. Iger to Jimmy Kimmel, died Friday after a long battle with throat cancer at the age of 80.

Wallau was seen as a critical guide to the media and TV business within Disney — by both people who worked off camera and those who appeared regularly in front of it.

At a recent Bloomberg conference in Los Angeles , late night host Jimmy Kimmel called Wallau “a guy who’s really been my mentor at ABC.” Wallau proved instrumental in clearing “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” across the network’s affiliates in 2002, and helped the show navigate some bumpy early years.

Kimmel remembered specifically the time that he made a joke about Detroi

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