William Putterman; Emmy Award-Winning Producer

William Zev Putterman, 67, Emmy Award-winning television producer who overcame heroin addiction. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Putterman studied at Colgate University and earned a philosophy degree with honors from Syracuse University. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and Hebrew University in Israel, where he worked for the Jerusalem Post and fought in Israel’s war of independence. In the 1950s, he returned to New York and worked as a stage manager and director. He also fell in with the beat generation night life and heroin. In the 1960s, Putterman became the 38th person to enter Synanon in Santa Monica, where he overcame his drug habit. He produced television programs in San Francisco for KGO and KQED and in Los Angeles for KTTV, Metromedia and ABC, and later founded Zev Putterman Productions. Since 1991, he had worked as director of community relations with the Amity drug rehabilitation community in Arizona. On May 27 in Tucson of cancer.