Frank A. Olson, who as a top Hertz executive cast running back OJ Simpson as the star of the company’s commercials — a corporate wedding that shone on both parties and lasted two decades, until Mr. Simpson of a double homicide in 1994 — died at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday, the same day Mr. Simpson died. Mr. Olson is 91 years old.
The cause was complications from Covid, his sons, Christopher and Blake, said.
The coincidental timing of the deaths of Mr. Olson, who mentored Hertz through years of corporate turmoil, and Mr. Simpson, the athlete-turned-pitchman-turned-infamous criminal defendant, linked to the two men in a way that Mr. Olson once embraced but later distanced himself from.
More than business partners, Mr. Olson and Mr. Simpson, both natives of San Francisco, formed an alliance, beginning in the 1970s, that spoke of that zone where corporate and social life converge. Mr. Olson, an avid golfer, sponsored Mr. Simpson for membership at the private Arcola Country Club in Paramus, NJ, where in 1992 Mr. Simpson, a former Heisman Trophy winner and Pro Football Hall of Famer, became the first Black member.
In a letter Mr. Simpson left at his Los Angeles home before he was arrested in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman, he listed friends he had sent ” love and gratitude.” Mr. Olson is one of them.
“I took him to places I think very few Black men have been,” Mr. Olson said in the acclaimed 2016 documentary “OJ: Made in America.”
Mr. Simpson was 76 years old when he died of cancer at his home in Las Vegas.
The idea to feature him in Hertz commercials to symbolize fast service, starting in 1974, came from the company’s ad agency. But because Mr. Simpson is Black and most of Hertz’s customers are white businessmen, the choice made the agency nervous, according to a 1994 article in The Washington Post. So the decision was kicked to Mr. Olson, who was then executive vice president and general manager of the rental-car division. (The company also rents trucks.)
Mr. Olson approved. The ads, featuring Mr. Simpson rushing through airports to a rental car, is a hit. Hertz said the campaign boosted sales in its fierce rivalry with Avis and other competitors.
Mr. Olson continued to personally negotiate the contracts of Mr. Simpson, which expanded to include personal appearances. The two played golf foursomes with major Hertz clients, and during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Mr. Simpson and his wife hosted a lavish party for Hertz executives at their estate in the Brentwood neighborhood.
In 1989, Mr. Simpson contacted Mr. Olson after he was accused of assaulting his wife on New Year’s Day. The police found Ms. Simpson hiding in the bushes outside his home, badly beaten.
On the phone, Mr. Olson said years later, Mr. Simpson downplayed the incident. After the plea of Mr. Simpson pleading no contest to battery charges generated so little publicity, Hertz retained him as its celebrity pitchman.
“We treated it as a private matter” between the Simpsons, a Hertz spokesman said at the time.
Five years later, the night Ms. Simpson and Mr. Goldman outside his condominium, Mr. Simpson was scheduled to travel to Chicago to play golf with Hertz executives and clients. He was arrested a few days later.
The company quickly announced that it had dropped him. Nor did the relationship revive after he was acquitted in a criminal trial that shocked the country and exposed the polarized views of Black and white Americans about the criminal justice system.
Later, when Mr. Simpson was found liable in a lawsuit and ordered to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million, Mr. Olson was a witness. He testified that when Mr. Simpson in 1989 about his arrest on battery charges, Mr. Simpson about the severity of the attack.
“If I had any idea at the time that this was the case, OJ Simpson would never have worked another day for Hertz,” Mr. Olson testified, as quoted by The Associated Press.
Frank Olson was born Frank Albert Johnson on July 19, 1932, in San Francisco to Fred and Edith Mary (Hazeldine) Johnson. His mother, an immigrant from England who worked as a stenographer, had a series of husbands, including Alfred Olson, a railroad conductor, who adopted Frank.
In addition to his children, Mr. Olson is survived by his wife, Sarah Olson, whom he married in 1957; a daughter, Kim Olson; and seven grandchildren.
Mr. Olson began his career in the rental car business at age 18 as a night manager at San Francisco International Airport.
Following his graduation from the City College of San Francisco, he founded his own car rental business. He sold it to Hertz in 1964 and joined the ranks of the company.
He quickly climbed the corporate escalator: He was put in charge of Hertz’s operations in California and Arizona; moved east to head New York City division in 1967; was named Eastern regional vice president two years later; and became general manager of all Hertz rental-car operations in the US in 1970.
In 1974, he joined the board of Hertz, then owned by RCA Corporation. In 1977, he was named chief executive of Hertz. In 1980, he became chairman.
When Hertz was sold in 1985 to UAL Inc., the parent of United Airlines, Mr. Olson was made a member of the UAL board. He later became chairman of the company — then renamed Allegis — and presided over a stormy period in 1987, fighting off an attempt by United pilots to take over the company.
That year, Ford Motor Company paid $1.2 billion for Hertz. Mr. stayed. Olson as chairman. He retired as chief executive in 1999 but retained the title of nonexecutive chairman.
Her children said she never spoke to or about Mr. Simpson after court cases involving the 1994 murders.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
