Claire Townsend; Studio Executive, Attorney

Claire Townsend, 43, studio executive and attorney who as a teenager investigated nursing home abuse of the elderly. Before beginning her studies at Princeton University in 1970, Townsend worked with consumer advocate Ralph Nader in a study of treatment of the elderly in East Coast nursing homes. As a result, she edited and was principal author of a book done under Nader’s aegis, “Old Age: The Last Segregation,” and testified before congressional committees. Nader praised Townsend as a woman who “moved between disciplined, intense work and imaginative creativity with great ease.” After college, Townsend moved to Los Angeles and joined the film industry, where she became a production vice president at 20th Century Fox and United Artists. After graduating from Southwestern University School of Law and becoming a lawyer, Townsend produced a documentary film, “The Spirit of Peace,” about the life of Peace Pilgrim. On Tuesday in Los Angeles of cancer.