As chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, Valenti talks a lot about movies, and in the past decade the talk has gotten a lot tougher.

Valenti has had to deal with complaints about explicit sex, bad language, and violence in films as well as global piracy and export barriers to the export of American movies.

To protect and defend the film industry, Valenti employs a combination of pragmatism and personal diplomacy. In 1968, he and the National Association of Theatre Owners created a rating system that warns patrons about possibility objectionable movie content.

Valenti also brings Hollywood to the Potomac. Armed with access to the newest films and a 70-seat screening room, Valenti's movie invites are among the most coveted in town.

Valenti credits much of his success to lessons he learned from Lyndon Johnson. He has friendships on both sides of the aisle.

Valenti is frank about protecting the rights of filmmakers even if he hates their films. When Oliver Stone's movie JFK was released, Valenti said, "The price you pay for freedom is this slime." Jack Joseph Valenti's life would make a terrific movie. The son of immigrants, he finished high school at 15, joined the Air Corps, and flew 51 combat missions in World War II.

After the war, Valenti got an MBA, started an advertising and political-consulting agency in Houston, and met Senate majority leader Johnson. Valenti idolized Johnson and began helping him in Texas. In 1963, Valenti's agency was hired to promote President John F. Kennedy's visit to the state. He was six cars behind the presidential limousine when Kennedy was shot.

Less than an hour later, Valenti was on Air Force One on his way to Washington as special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Three years later, Valenti was tapped for a presidency of his own – as head of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Valenti now hires others to do the day-to-day congressional relations while he concentrates on international issues. He also helps countless charities and emcees fundraisers all over town.

Now 81, Valenti isn't slowing down. "You have to be on the battlefield," he says. "You have to dare greatly every day."