Former US film producer giving headless animal to chap (7)
I believe the answer is:
eastman
'former us film producer' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'headless animal to chap' is the wordplay.
'headless' means to remove the first letter.
'animal' becomes 'beast' (synonyms).
'to chap' becomes 'man' (chap can mean a man).
'beast' with its initial letter taken away is 'east'.
'east'+'man'='EASTMAN'
'giving' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for eastman that I've seen is " Early developer".)