Ray Farkas; Producer, Documentary Maker

Mr. Farkas graduated from Lehigh University in 1957 and began his career in journalism as a reporter for United Press International. He then moved to NBC, where he wrote for the "Huntley-Brinkley Report" and struck up a close friendship with anchorman David Brinkley.

"Ray was a great gambler, and he and Brinkley played poker together," Trail said.

Mr. Farkas was at NBC for 24 years, including a number of years as a producer for the "Today" show. He later produced dozens of features and documentaries for ABC, CBS, Fox, PBS, HBO and AMC. His Emmy Award-winning documentaries included an ABC News special about abortion called "The New Civil War" and a documentary about novelist Joseph Heller for the Learning Channel.

His signature style originated in the civil rights movement. "I spent a lot of time for NBC down in Mississippi, and we were accused, not without some justification, of being part of the story," he told Rich Underwood, author of the book "Roll! Shooting TV News: Views from Behind the Lens" (2007). "That was part of the genesis for learning how to stay away from subjects, to stay out of the story as much as we could."

Mr. Farkas started his own production company, Off Center Productions, in 1991. The company's work includes two series pilots: "Ira's People," a mixture of crime and humor that appeared on Court TV in 1999, and "Interviews 50 Cents."

In the latter, Mr. Farkas and National Public Radio correspondent Alex Chadwick sat at a card table outside Washington's Union Station, at Baltimore's Inner Harbor and at the Cape May-Lewes ferry slip in New Jersey with a hand-lettered sign reading "Interviews 50 Cents." Their cameras set up at a distance, they invited people to tell their stories.

The curious usually wanted to know who paid the 50 cents to whom. "Tell us your story, and then we'll decide," Mr. Farkas joked.

In 2005, he created a local newsmagazine program for WJLA-TV, the local ABC affiliate, entitled "Metropolitan Edition." The program won two D.C. National Capital Region Emmys.

Mr. Farkas began to develop symptoms of Parkinson's disease in 2000. A tennis player, he told USA Today he knew something was wrong when he began to lose to people he usually beat.

The surgery four years later was successful. The tremors disappeared, and Mr. Farkas resumed playing tennis.

He also became an advocate on behalf of Parkinson's patients. "He made it his mission in life to comfort anyone that he could with this disease," said his surgeon, Chris Kalhorn.

Mr. Farkas's marriage to Linda Farkas ended in divorce.

Survivors include Metcalfe, his wife of 20 years, of the District; three children from his first marriage, Mark Farkas of Fairfax, Julie Farkas of Chevy Chase and Danny Farkas of Annandale; a son from his second marriage, Andrew Metcalfe of the District; and seven grandchildren.