Fred Weintraub | |
---|---|
Born | Fred Robert Weintraub April 27, 1928 |
Died | March 5, 2017 88) | (aged
Occupations |
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Known for | Original owner of The Bitter End, martial arts and action films |
Website | fredweintraub |
Fred Robert Weintraub (April 27, 1928 – March 5, 2017) [1] was an American film and television producer and writer.
Weintraub was the original owner and host of The Bitter End in New York City's Greenwich Village. [2] Weintraub discovered singers and stand-up comedians such as Peter, Paul and Mary, Lenny Bruce (with whom he was arrested for obscenity), Randy Newman and The Isley Brothers. [3] The club also featured early performances of Neil Diamond, Woody Allen, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Ricky Nelson, Nina Simone, Dustin Hoffman, Charles Aznavour, Lily Tomlin, Stevie Wonder, Kris Kristofferson, Joni Mitchell, George Carlin, Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, Bill Cosby and Phil Ochs. [3] During the early 1960s The Bitter End hosted "Open Mike" Hootenannies every Tuesday night, showcasing young, old, known and unknown folksingers. [4]
Weintraub is not related to fellow film producer Jerry Weintraub.
Moving west in the mid 1960s, Weintraub created, wrote, and produced several television shows including Hootenanny and Dukes of Hazzard . [5] Beginning with Rage then Enter the Dragon Weintraub produced dozens of movies, many with a martial arts theme (like China O'Brien with Cynthia Rothrock, for example), as well as directing a documentary on Bruce Lee, Bruce Lee: The Curse of the Dragon (1993). [5]
In 1970 Weintraub became an Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. One of the first films he oversaw for the studio was Woodstock . In 1972 he became an independent producer, and made a number of adventure films, including Enter the Dragon , starring Bruce Lee.
One of Weintraub's documentary films was It's Showtime (1976) which consisted of film clips profiling various animal actors, such as Rin Tin Tin, Flipper, Trigger, and Asta, with commentary from the actors who worked with them, and including footage of James Cagney, Jimmy Durante, Cary Grant, Maureen O'Sullivan, Dick Powell, Ronald Reagan, and Mickey Rooney working with animal stars. [6] [7]
In 2011, Weintraub published his memoir, Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me, along with collaborator David Fields, [8] recalling his fifty-year career in the entertainment industry. [9]
Weintraub died on March 5, 2017, in his Pacific Palisades home due to natural causes related to Parkinson's disease. He was 88.
He is survived by his wife Jackie; children Sandra, Barbara, Max and Zachary; and four grandchildren. [10]
Title | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|
Christmas at F.A.O. Schwarz | 1968 | Executive producer; television film |
Rage | 1972 | |
Invasion of the Bee Girls | 1973 | Executive producer |
Enter the Dragon | 1973 | |
Black Belt Jones | 1974 | |
Truck Turner | 1974 | |
Golden Needles | 1974 | |
The Ultimate Warrior | 1975 | |
Trial by Combat | 1976 | |
It's Showtime | 1976 | Documentary film |
Hot Potato | 1976 | |
Checkered Flag or Crash | 1977 | |
Outlaw Blues | 1977 | Executive producer |
The Pack | 1977 | |
The Promise | 1979 | |
Jaguar Lives! | 1979 | |
Tom Horn | 1980 | |
The Big Brawl | 1980 | |
Force: Five | 1981 | |
High Road to China | 1983 | |
Gymkata | 1985 | |
Out of Control | 1985 | |
The Women's Club | 1987 | |
My Father, My Son | 1988 | Television film |
The Best of the Martial Arts Films | 1990 | Documentary film |
Chips, the War Dog | 1990 | Executive producer; television film |
China O'Brien | 1990 | |
A Show of Force | 1990 | Co-producer |
China O'Brien II | 1990 | Direct-to-video |
Born to Ride | 1991 | |
The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes | 1992 | Documentary film |
Gypsy Eyes | 1992 | |
Trouble Bound | 1993 | |
The Curse of the Dragon | 1993 | Documentary film |
Backstreet Justice | 1994 | |
Under the Gun | 1995 | Executive producer |
Triplecross | 1995 | Television films |
Playboy's Really Naked Truth | 1995-97 | Executive producer (21 episodes) |
Undertow | 1996 | Television film |
The New Adventures of Robin Hood | 1997-98 | Executive producer (53 episodes) |
The Devil's Arithmetic | 1999 | Television films |
Perilous | 2000 | Television films |
Amazons and Gladiators | 2001 | |
Warrior Angels | 2002 | |
Endangered Species | 2003 | |
Dream Warrior | 2003 | |
La Femme Musketeer | 2004 | Mini-series (2 episodes) |
Patton's Ghost Corps | 2006 | Executive producer; direct-to-video documentary |
Title | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|
Black Belt Jones | 1974 | Story |
Trial by Combat | 1976 | Story |
Hot Potato | 1976 | Characters |
The Promise | 1979 | Story |
The Big Brawl | 1980 | Story |
The Women's Club | 1987 | Story |
The New Adventures of Robin Hood | 1997-1998 | Creator (53 episodes) |
Title | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|
It's Showtime | 1976 | Documentary film |
The Curse of the Dragon | 1993 | Documentary film |
Title | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|
Hootenanny | 1963-1964 | Talent coordinator (2 episodes) |
Black Belt Jones | 1974 | Cameo as "Judge" |
The Dukes of Hazzard | 1979 | Consultant (5 episodes) |
Enter the Dragon is a 1973 martial arts film directed by Robert Clouse and written by Michael Allin. The film, which stars Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim Kelly, was Lee's final completed film appearance before his death on 20 July 1973 at the age of 32. An American-Hong Kong co-production, the film was premiered in Los Angeles on 19 August 1973, one month after Lee's death.
Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong-American martial artist and actor. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is sometimes credited with paving the way for the combat sport mixed martial arts (MMA). Lee is considered by some commentators and martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Chinese people were presented in American films.
Kung Fu is an American action-adventure martial arts Western drama television series starring David Carradine. The series follows the adventures of Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk who travels through the American Old West, armed only with his spiritual training and his skill in martial arts, as he seeks Danny Caine, his half-brother.
The Game of Death is an incomplete Hong Kong martial arts film, of which portions were filmed between September and October 1972, directed, written, produced by and starring Bruce Lee. The project was paused to film and produce Enter the Dragon. For The Game of Death, over 120 minutes of footage was shot, which was later misplaced in the Golden Harvest archives. The remaining footage has since been released with Lee's original Cantonese and English dialogue, with John Little dubbing Lee's Hai Tien character as part of the documentary titled Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey. Much of the footage that was shot is from what was to be the climax of the film.
Chopsocky is a colloquial term for martial arts films and kung fu films made primarily by Hong Kong action cinema between the late 1960s and early 1980s. The term was coined by the American motion picture trade magazine Variety following the explosion of films in the genre released in 1973 in the U.S. after the success of Five Fingers of Death. The word is a play on chop suey, combining "chop" and "sock".
Bruce Li is a Taiwanese martial artist and actor who starred in martial arts films from the Bruceploitation movement.
James Milton Kelly was an American athlete, martial artist, and actor. After winning several karate championships, Kelly rose to fame in the early 1970s appearing in various action films within the martial arts and blaxploitation genres. Kelly played opposite Bruce Lee in 1973's Enter the Dragon, and had lead roles in 1974's Black Belt Jones as the title character and Three the Hard Way as Mister Keyes.
Bruceploitation is an exploitation film subgenre that emerged after the death of martial arts film star Bruce Lee in 1973, during which time filmmakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea cast Bruce Lee look-alike actors ("Lee-alikes") to star in imitation martial arts films, in order to exploit Lee's sudden international popularity. Bruce Lee look-alike characters also commonly appear in other media, including anime, comic books, manga, and video games.
Fred Neil was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after it was used in the film Midnight Cowboy in 1969. Though highly regarded by contemporary folk singers, he was reluctant to tour and spent much of the last 30 years of his life assisting with the preservation of dolphins.The late singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett referenced Fred Neil in his song Colour Of The Sun on Jimmy's Songs From St. Somewhere album.
James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.
Cover Girl is a 1944 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Charles Vidor, and starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. The film tells the story of a chorus girl given a chance at stardom when she is offered an opportunity to be a highly paid cover girl. It was one of the most popular musicals of the war years.
Hootenanny was an American musical variety television show broadcast on ABC from April 1963 to September 1964. The program was hosted by Jack Linkletter. It primarily featured pop-oriented folk music acts, including The Journeymen, The Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, The Brothers Four, Ian & Sylvia, The Big 3, Hoyt Axton, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, The Tarriers, Bud & Travis, and the Smothers Brothers. Although both popular and influential, the program is primarily remembered today for the controversy created when the producers blacklisted certain folk music acts, which then led to a boycott by others.
Legacy of Rage is a 1986 Hong Kong action film directed by Ronny Yu. The film stars Brandon Lee in his feature film debut, Michael Wong, Regina Kent and also features a cameo appearance by Bolo Yeung, who appeared in Brandon's father Bruce Lee's last film Enter the Dragon. Bolo was honored to fight alongside Brandon as they were best friends. This was Brandon Lee's first leading role in a film and the only Hong Kong production he starred in.
Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, also known as The Dragon and the Cobra, is a 1980 American martial arts film set at the "1979 World Karate Championships" at Madison Square Garden that will supposedly determine the "successor" to Bruce Lee. The film is hosted by Adolph Caesar. Bruce Lee was deceased before the film went into production, and any footage featuring Lee was taken from earlier films or television appearances. It is considered to be an exploitation film or Bruceploitation, exploiting Bruce Lee's popularity, and the mystique surrounding his death.
The Bitter End is a 230-person capacity nightclub, coffeehouse and folk music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to The Other End in June 1975. However, after a few years the owners changed the club's name back to the more recognizable The Bitter End. It remains open under new ownership.
The Pickle Brothers were a three-man comedy act which enjoyed considerable success during the late 1960s. Their madcap style, characterized by fast patter and constant motion, encompassed sketch comedy, spoofs of then-current television shows and commercials, and social and political humor.
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Ang Lee is a Taiwanese filmmaker. His films are known for their emotional charge and exploration of repressed, hidden emotions. During his career, he has received international critical and popular acclaim and numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2003, he was ranked 27th in The Guardian's 40 best directors.
Bruce Lee: The Curse of the Dragon is a 1993 documentary film about Bruce Lee. The film includes interviews from some of his fellow students and opponents who worked alongside him in his movies. The film is directed by Tom Kuhn and Fred Weintraub and written by Davis Miller, author of the books The Tao of Muhammad Ali, The Tao of Bruce Lee and "Approaching Ali."
The Dragon Lives, also known as He's a Legend, He's a Hero, is a 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film starring Bruce Li and directed by Wang Hsing-lei. A fictional account of Bruce Lee's life, it is one of numerous films which exploited the popularity of Lee after his death, a practice called Bruceploitation. The film was released in the United States by Film Ventures International on 19 September 1978.