Jack Valenti, 85

Jack Valenti, the former White House aide and film industry lobbyist who instituted the modern movie ratings system and guided Hollywood from the censorship era to the digital age, died Thursday. He was 85.

When he took over as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Mr. Valenti was caught between Hollywood's outdated system of self-censorship and the liberal cultural explosion taking place in America.

In Mr. Valenti's later years he handled tricky new challenges from the Internet and technologies that allow movies to be illegally reproduced and distributed in an instant. Mr. Valenti also travelled worldwide seeking to thwart movie piracy and boost film exports to reluctant countries such as China.