New Delhi, Oct. 18 -- Gene Schwam, the Hollywood publicist who spent decades shaping the public image of stars including Elvis Presley, Judy Garland and Julie Andrews, has died at 96.

Schwam died Friday in Los Angeles after a brief illness, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. His agency, Hanson & Schwam Public Relations, outlasted most of the studios-era publicity shops that surrounded its founding in 1955.

The firm began after Schwam, then earning $35 a week working for publicist Stanley Cowan, decided to go out on his own. He teamed with Adeline Hanson, a part-time disc jockey and publicist, and Variety reported that she settled the question of whose name came first with two words: ladies first. Their earliest clients wer...