{{short description|American film producer (1928–2017)}} {{Use American English|date=December 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Fred Weintraub | image = | caption = | birth_name = Fred Robert Weintraub | birth_date = {{Birth date |1928|04|27}} | birth_place = The Bronx, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|03|05|1928|04|27}} | death_place = Pacific Palisades, California, U.S. | other_names = | occupation = {{hlist|Film producer|television producer}} | known_for = Original owner of The Bitter End, martial arts and action films | website = {{URL|fredweintraub.com}} }}
'''Fred Robert Weintraub''' (April 27, 1928 – March 5, 2017)<ref name="NYT">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/arts/music/fred-weintraub-dead-bitter-end-nightclub-founder.html |title=Fred Weintraub, Who Showcased Future Greats at the Bitter End, Dies at 88 |access-date=March 7, 2017 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> was an American film and television producer and writer.
==Career==
===Background=== Weintraub was the original owner and host of The Bitter End in New York City's Greenwich Village.<ref name=Colby>{{cite book|title=The Bitter End: Hanging Out at America's Nightclub |first=Paul |last=Colby| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0JMlwhMMGoC&pg=PA27|isbn=9781461660866 |publisher= Cooper Square Press|year=2002 |access-date= November 21, 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref name="BEH"/> 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.<ref name="BEH">{{cite web|url= http://bitterend.com|title= Paul Colby's The Bitter End |access-date=November 21, 2012|publisher= The Bitter End.com}}</ref> During the early 1960s The Bitter End hosted "Open Mike" Hootenannies every Tuesday night, showcasing young, old, known and unknown folksingers.<ref name="FMA">{{cite web|url=http://folkmusicarchives.org/bitter_end.htm|publisher=folkmusicarchives.org|title=The Bitter End|access-date=January 17, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223114121/http://folkmusicarchives.org/bitter_end.htm|archive-date=December 23, 2008|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
Weintraub is not related to fellow film producer Jerry Weintraub.
===Films and television=== Moving west in the mid-1960s, Weintraub created, wrote, and produced several television shows including ''Hootenanny'' and ''Dukes of Hazzard''.<ref name="FR">{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/76/Fred-Weintraub.html|publisher= filmreference.com|title=Fred Weintraub Biography |access-date= January 17, 2009}}</ref> 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).<ref name="FR"/>
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809366552/cast |publisher=Yahoo Movies|title="It's Showtime" cast and crew|access-date= January 17, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/126593/It-s-Showtime/cast|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020023233/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/126593/It-s-Showtime/cast|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 20, 2012|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=The New York Times|date=2012|title="It's Showtime" cast and crew|access-date= January 17, 2009}}</ref>
In 1978 Weintraub and Gordon McLendon worked on an idea for a TV series about the CIA. They were disillusioned with the negative portrayal of the agency such as in the film ''Three Days of the Condor''. As a result, McLendon and CIA veteran David Atlee Phillips approached CIA Director Stansfield Turner in March 1978 about the idea although nothing came of the proposal.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Willmetts |first1=Simon |title=In Secrecy's Shadow The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979 |date=2016 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |page=262}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Richards |first1=Bill |title=FIRST IT WAS 'THE FBI' ON TV, AND NEXT IT MAY BE THE CIA |work=The Washington Post |date=22 March 1978}}</ref>
=== Other work === In 2011, Weintraub published his memoir, ''Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me'', along with collaborator David Fields,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://fieldsday.com/index.html|title = Free Wedding Websites - Best Wedding Websites}}</ref> recalling his fifty-year career in the entertainment industry.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bruce-lee-woodstock-and-me.com/index.html |title=''Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me'' |access-date=January 22, 2017 |archive-date=February 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202010526/http://bruce-lee-woodstock-and-me.com/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Death == 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-me-fred-weintraub-20170307-story.html|title=Fred Weintraub, who financed 'Woodstock' and helped discover Bruce Lee, dies at 88|last=Roberts|first=Randall|date=March 7, 2017|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=March 8, 2017|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref>
==Filmography==
=== Producer === {| class="wikitable sortable" !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 |}
=== Writer === {| class="wikitable sortable" !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) |}
=== Director === {| class="wikitable sortable" !Title !Year !Notes |- |''It's Showtime'' |1976 |Documentary film |- |''The Curse of the Dragon'' |1993 |Documentary film |}
=== Other credits === {| class="wikitable sortable" !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) |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0918518}} *{{IMDb title|0074699|title=It's Showtime}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weintraub, Fred}} Category:1928 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Record producers from New York (state) Category:Film producers from New York (state) Category:People from Greenwich Village Category:Mass media people from the Bronx