Jerry Weintraub, the dynamic producer and manager who pushed the career of John Denver and produced such hit movies as Nashville and Ocean’s Eleven, has died. He was 77.
Representatives for Weintraub said he died on Monday of cardiac arrest in Santa Barbara, California.
Weintraub rose from talent agency mail room employee to top concert promoter — working with the likes of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra — and shaping Denver’s career, before tackling the movie business starting in the 1970s.
Photo: Reuters
His attempt to found his own studio, Weintraub Entertainment Group, ended in bankruptcy, but his success as an independent producer spanned decades, from Karate Kid to 2013’s Emmy-winning Liberace drama Behind the Candelabra, a film he took to HBO after all the studios passed.
“Jerry was an American original, who earned his success by the sheer force of his instinct, drive and larger-than-life personality,” said former US president George H.W. 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.”
“In the coming days there will be tributes about our friend Jerry Weintraub,” said George 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.”
A Brooklyn-born telephone-wielding impresario, Weintraub fashioned himself in the mold of 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.
“If asked my philosophy, it would be simply this: Savor life, don’t press too hard, don’t worry too much, or as the old-timers say: ‘Enjoy,’” he wrote. “But... I never could live by this philosophy and was, in fact, out working, hustling, trading, scheming and making a buck as soon as I was old enough to leave my parents’ house.”
Weintraub left numerous projects behind. He is the executive producer of the recently debuted HBO series The Brink and a producer on an upcoming remake of Tarzan.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese