His reps have verified that Dave Hollis, a former Disney executive and life coach, passed away over the weekend at his home in Texas. He was 47 years old.
The author Rachel Hollis, with whom Mr. Hollis had four children, has been at the forefront of the tributes to her ex-husband.
On Tuesday, she shared the news on Instagram, writing, “We are so devastated. I don’t know what to say; my heart is too broken. Please keep the children in your prayers while we attempt the unthinkable.
There was no official word on what killed Mr. Hollis, but he had just been hospitalised for cardiac problems.
Who Was Dave Hollis?
Once the media conglomerate Disney acquired LucasArt in 2012, Dave Hollis was promoted to the position of president of sales for the film studio at Disney. He is recognised with playing a role in the relaunch of the Star Wars brand.
He also oversaw the expansion of the Frozen series. In the year leading up to 2018, Mr. Hollis was instrumental in Disney securing 22% of all US box office ticket sales. Disney movies made over £5 billion ($6 billion) in 2017.
His ex-wife wrote a book called Girl, Wash Your Face, and it came out around this time. Due to its overwhelming popularity, a follow-up film was produced and titled Girl, Quit Apologizing.
Mr. Hollis described this period on his website as follows: “I’d come through a mid-life crisis where having achieved a place I’d been striving towards for 20 years in Hollywood, the existential questions of ‘is this it?’ merged with the belief in a vision for the mission ahead.
To pursue what I thought would be something much bigger, I went against a lifetime of pragmatic wiring and a need for certainty, upending a life that looked excellent on paper.
There was “the hope that impact may give more significance, something that seemed like it meant more,” as the quote puts it. That’s why I handed in my resignation in January of this year. I took a chance and uprooted my family from Los Angeles to a sleepy hamlet in Texas called Dripping Springs, where I had worked as the head of sales for a movie company for the previous seventeen years.
After that, he ran the media, book, and event production company Hollis Company as its CEO.
His wife Rachel and he had been married since 2004, but they filed for divorce in 2020. “Divorce is the worst,” Mr. Hollis added in the interest of everyone. Having the divorce out in the open was not a lot of fun. When a divorce causes so much pain and suffering and understandable fury and rage in the people and places you love, it is tragic.
His most recent post revealed that he had started seeing a woman named Heidi Powell and was rediscovering his Christian religion. In order to aid youth in need, he also established the Dave Hollis Giving Fund.
He kept up his career as a life coach and author throughout this time.
Mr. Hollis wrote in one article, “If you’re going through a dark phase, I will encourage you to think that there’s light at some point in this path for you too.” Some of the worst decisions I ever made ended up saving my life, so don’t let that discourage you from trying again.
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Tributes To Dave Hollis
“Dave was a terrific man, a loving parent, an inspiring instructor, and a great friend,” the self-help expert and author Brendon Burchard posted on social media. Time was something we had in abundance.
His love for his children and desire to help others, as well as his compassion and empathy, his boundless energy, and his willingness to share his challenges, all won me over.
On LinkedIn, Jonathan Flora, another former Disney executive, remarked, “Sad to hear the awful news. Dave was a longtime friend of mine, and he made incredible progress in a relatively short period of time. We mourn his passing. May God bless him, his wife, and their children.
Mr. Hollis’ literary agent, Kevan Lyon, said CBS News, “I had the tremendous honour of working with him on multiple novels, including his latest release with his daughter Noah.”
In this time of great sorrow, I am thinking of his children and his family.