Charles Wick; Reagan Ally Ran U.S. Information Agency

Charles Z. Wick, 90, a Hollywood agent and entrepreneur who became the longest-serving director of the U.S. Information Agency and an original member of the "kitchen cabinet" that financed Ronald Reagan's first run for the California governor's office in 1966, died July 20 of cardiopulmonary failure at his home in Los Angeles.

During his USIA tenure from 1981 to 1989, Mr. Wick was credited with raising the profile and influence of a traditionally staid agency in ways seldom seen since Edward R. Murrow served in the same position under John F. Kennedy.

He was an impassioned Cold Warrior and used his close friendship with Reagan to more than double the USIA budget and embark on projects that drastically expanded its reach, including the launch of Voice of America's anti-Castro Radio Marti and Worldnet, the first live global satellite television network.

"Charlie is the man who brought our international communications agency into the 20th century," Reagan said in 1988.

Wick also emerged as one of the most controversial personalities in Washington in the 1980s, not only for an abrasive demeanor, but also for orchestrating USIA efforts criticized as heavy-handed and propagandistic. He defended his approach as a "war of ideas" to counter Soviet propaganda.

Fond of Saville Row suits and other trappings of status, Mr. Wick arrived in Washington with a thunderclap. After Reagan's 1980 victory, he served as co-chairman of the inaugural committee and helped stage the most expensive inaugural at that time. The festivities included nine balls in Washington and more than a hundred across the country, as well as an entertainment gala with Frank Sinatra as master of ceremonies.

This sense of razzle-dazzle permeated his USIA career. In 1982, when Poland was enduring martial law and food shortages because of its resistance to the Soviet Union, he authorized a 90-minute telecast called "Let Poland be Poland." The program featured Sinatra singing in Polish and Charlton Heston declaiming about Pope John Paul II, a native Pole.

"Let Poland be Poland" was not "some song and dance" show, Mr. Wick told The Washington Post, despite criticism that it was just that. "It is a very serious articulation of the background of freedom. To remain passive is a bummer," he added.

He suspected that he was a target of the KGB, the Soviet secret police, and he had a $32,000 security system installed at his home in 1983. Embarrassed White House officials persuaded him to reimburse the government for $22,000 of the cost.

That year, he was in the headlines for secretly taping his phone calls. Investigations by congressional committees and the General Services Administration revealed that callers who were taped without their knowledge included former president Jimmy Carter, newscaster Walter Cronkite and actor Kirk Douglas.

Mr. Wick publicly apologized for "doing a very dumb thing."

He also came under fire when it was disclosed in 1984 that the USIA kept a list of 84 prominent Americans it excluded from government-sponsored speaking trips, apparently with political intent. The list included writers James Baldwin and Betty Friedan, Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and former CIA director Stansfield Turner.