Stanley R. Jaffe, a former Hollywood wunderkind who became president of Paramount at 29, then left after just a few years to become an Oscar-winning producer of films like “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Fatal Attraction” and “The Accused,” died on Monday at his home in Rancho Mirage. He was 84.

His daughter Betsy Jaffe confirmed the death.

Stanley Jaffe was known as a hands-on producer, and his work on “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979), a searing divorce drama, showed why.

The movie was based on a 1977 novel of the same name by Avery Corman, and he bought the rights immediately after it was published. He persuaded a reluctant Dustin Hoffman to play the father, Ted, and cast the relatively unknown Meryl Streep to play his wife, Joanna.

The film was a commercial and critical success. Along with the Oscar for best picture, it won for best actor (Hoffman); best supporting actress (Streep); and best director and best adapted screenplay (both for Robert Benton).

Jaffe was not quite 40 when he won the Academy Award, but he was already a veteran heavyweight in Hollywood.

He made his mark early, independently producing the film version of Philip Roth’s novella “Goodbye, Columbus” (1969). It was a big risk: He borrowed much of the money; Roth was not yet a household name (Jaffe optioned the rights weeks before the publication of the author’s career-making “Portnoy’s Complaint”); and as the female lead, he cast an unknown Ali MacGraw, then a photographer’s assistant trying to break into acting.

His success with the film won Jaffe a position as an executive vice president at Paramount, in 1969; nine months later, he moved up to president, making him, just a few days shy of his 30th birthday, the youngest studio head in Hollywood.

Jaffe was the consummate Hollywood executive, but he felt a deep personal connection to his films, and suffered when they did not do well.

“I’m very vulnerable to a picture not working because it’s something I really care about,” he told The Christian Science Monitor in 1982. “It’s not just 12 reels or two pounds of film. It’s something I believed in.”