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One of the last of the classic Hollywood showmen, Jerry Weintraub built his show business empire on a Rolodex and chutzpah.
The Brooklyn-born son of a Bronx jeweler, Weintraub rose from the mailroom of a talent agency to become a top concert promoter before shifting into a decades-long career as a top Hollywood producer.
Along the way, Weintraub worked with the most famous of stars — Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, George Clooney, Brad Pitt — and was a close friend of former President George H.W. Bush. He relished his insider status, just as they savored the stories that eagerly poured out of him.
Weintraub, the dynamic producer and manager who pushed the career of John Denver and produced such hits movies as “Nashville,” ‘’Karate Kid” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” died Monday in Santa Barbara, California. He was 77. A publicist for Weintraub said he died of cardiac arrest.
“Jerry was an American original who earned his success by the sheer force of his instinct, drive, and larger-than-life personality,” said Bush, a longtime friend. “He had a passion for life, and throughout the ups and downs of his prolific career, it was clear just how much he loved show business.”
Weintraub failed in one of his most ambitious gambits. His attempt to found his own studio, Weintraub Entertainment Group, ended in bankruptcy after only three years. But his long career — very much alive at the time of his passing — was marked by savvy innovation (he was among the first to stage arena tours) and old-school class.
Weintraub had his choice lunch spots in Los Angeles, his desert home in Palm Springs and his favored places to moor his yacht off the French Riviera. A self-made man, he fashioned himself in the mold of old Hollywood showman like Mike Todd, Cecil B. DeMille and P.T. Barnum. He titled his 2011 memoir: “When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead.”
At the time, he joked he might write another: “Dead, But Still Talking.”
“In the coming days there will be tributes about our friend Jerry Weintraub,” said Clooney, a star of the “Ocean’s” movies. “We’ll laugh at his great stories and applaud his accomplishments. And in the years to come, the stories and accomplishments will get better with age, just as Jerry would have wanted it. But not today. Today our friend died.”
One of Weintraub’s most recent successes was the 2013 Liberace drama “Behind the Candelabra.” After the studios passed, he took it to HBO, where it won 11 Emmys.
He left numerous projects behind, including the recently debuted HBO series “The Brink” with Jack Black, and an upcoming big-budget remake of “Tarzan.”
The Brooklyn-born son of a Bronx jeweler, Weintraub rose from the mailroom of a talent agency to become a top concert promoter before shifting into a decades-long career as a top Hollywood producer.
Along the way, Weintraub worked with the most famous of stars — Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, George Clooney, Brad Pitt — and was a close friend of former President George H.W. Bush. He relished his insider status, just as they savored the stories that eagerly poured out of him.
Weintraub, the dynamic producer and manager who pushed the career of John Denver and produced such hits movies as “Nashville,” ‘’Karate Kid” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” died Monday in Santa Barbara, California. He was 77. A publicist for Weintraub said he died of cardiac arrest.
“Jerry was an American original who earned his success by the sheer force of his instinct, drive, and larger-than-life personality,” said Bush, a longtime friend. “He had a passion for life, and throughout the ups and downs of his prolific career, it was clear just how much he loved show business.”
Weintraub failed in one of his most ambitious gambits. His attempt to found his own studio, Weintraub Entertainment Group, ended in bankruptcy after only three years. But his long career — very much alive at the time of his passing — was marked by savvy innovation (he was among the first to stage arena tours) and old-school class.
Weintraub had his choice lunch spots in Los Angeles, his desert home in Palm Springs and his favored places to moor his yacht off the French Riviera. A self-made man, he fashioned himself in the mold of old Hollywood showman like Mike Todd, Cecil B. DeMille and P.T. Barnum. He titled his 2011 memoir: “When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead.”
At the time, he joked he might write another: “Dead, But Still Talking.”
“In the coming days there will be tributes about our friend Jerry Weintraub,” said Clooney, a star of the “Ocean’s” movies. “We’ll laugh at his great stories and applaud his accomplishments. And in the years to come, the stories and accomplishments will get better with age, just as Jerry would have wanted it. But not today. Today our friend died.”
One of Weintraub’s most recent successes was the 2013 Liberace drama “Behind the Candelabra.” After the studios passed, he took it to HBO, where it won 11 Emmys.
He left numerous projects behind, including the recently debuted HBO series “The Brink” with Jack Black, and an upcoming big-budget remake of “Tarzan.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertain ... story.html
