Ocean’s Eleven producer Jerry Weintraub, a man almost as well known for his sense of showmanship in life as the movies he made, has died at the age of 77.
Born in Brooklyn in 1937, Weintraub was raised in the Bronx and obsessed with cinema. In his teenage years, he’d sneaked in to the local Lowes Paradise Theater so often that the manager offered him a job as an usher. He ditched high school at 17 for the Air Force and then used the G.I. Bill to fund his education at Sanford Meisner’s Neighbourhood Playhouse. He took a somewhat traditional route into show business, working as a page at NBC and in the mailroom at the William Morris agency. But his restless spirit meant he sought out more, and became a personal manager to various clients on the club circuit and worked briefly for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1959.
His first big taste of success came in 1960 after founding Management III with Bernie Brillstein and Marty Kummer. After badgering Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker to let him promote one of the musician’s tours, the huge returns saw clients flock to him for promotional services, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton and the Beach Boys.
After a fortuitous meeting with Robert Altman during a John Denver performance, Weintraub got into film, working on Nashville. His film career stretched across genres and styles of films, including Diner, the four original **Karate Kid **films (and the 2010 remake), The Firm, Vegas Vacation, Soldier, the Ocean’s Eleven films, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind and Oh, God!. On TV, he worked on innumerable live shows and special events, including the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics broadcast. More recently, he produced HBO comedy The Brink and was part of the team for the new Westworld series on the channel.
He parlayed his success into charitable events, raising money for student scholarships and, along with his wife Jane Morgan, participating in the Variety Club Foundation and various medical charities. “In the coming days there will be tributes, about our friend Jerry Weintraub,” George Clooney, a frequent collaborator, said in a statement. “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. To his family and friends, Amal and I send our love. And to those who didn’t know him we send our deepest sympathy. You would have loved him.”