(MENAFN- Arab Times) Jerry Weintraub, the colorful and controversial producer whose films included "Nashville," "Diner," "The Karate Kid" and the trio of "Ocean's Eleven" films, died Monday of cardiac arrest in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 77. He had been in poor health recently. When he received Variety's Creative Leadership Award in 2013, Weintraub told Variety that he had a yacht and a Rolls-Royce, but was "not a big Hollywood guy." Some would disagree. He was actually an old-school Hollywood showman, who understood the relationship between production and marketing. He was also a snappy dresser - his shoes were colorful and fun - who knew how to work the room and how to work the press: He was always available to the media and when he had a film in release, he knew how to maximize public awareness. But the showiness was backed by hard work. His savvy came after decades of performing in many different jobs in the industry. Jerome Charles Weintraub was born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx. As a teenager he enlisted in the Air Force, where he served as a radio operator. He worked in the mailroom of MCA, he quickly was promoted to assistant agent and then agent in the 1950s and '60s. By the early '70s he had built a large business, Concerts West, co-owned with Tom Hulett and which booked talent as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys. His Management III handled John Denver, Neil Diamond and Dolly Parton among others. Weintraub was an innovative musicbusiness showman - he was among the first to book top talent into concert tours held in sports stadiums - and he became rich for his efforts. He also packaged television specials featuring Denver (whose 1974 "Rocky Mountain Christmas" special won an Emmy), Diamond, Sinatra, the Carpenters and Pat Boone.
Expanded
He expanded into films, as exec producer on the Robert Altmandirected "Nashville" in 1975. In 1977, he enjoyed one of his biggest commercial hits, "Oh, God!," starring Denver and George Burns. Other films included "All Night Long," "9/30/55" and "Happy New Year." He was producer of the 1980 William Friedkin-directed "Cruising" (which gained a lot of publicity from the protests of gay activists) and the 1982 Barry Levinson film "Diner." But it was the sleeper 1984 hit "The Karate Kid" that helped convince Kirk Kerkorian, then owner of MGM/UA, to hire Weintraub to revive the moribund United Artists unit. Weintraub also bought a minority stake of UA in 1986, but found himself on a collision course with the equally strong-willed Kerkorian. Several months later he was out of a job and vowed not to work as an employee ever again. In 1987, with $461 million in backing raised through various public and private sources, he launched Weintraub Entertainment Group in an attempt to create a rival to the major Hollywood studios. This venture, in which Weintraub controlled 76 percent of the stock, produced such unmemorable films as "My Stepmother Is an Alien," "The Big Blue," "Troop Beverly Hills" and "She's Out of Control." The company was out of control too, quickly losing top executives and the confidence of financial institutions. Weintraub tried to safeguard the company by purchasing the foundering Cannon Group's 2,000-title movie and TV library for $89 million and some stock in WEG (the library had once been the Thorn-EMI library). It proved to be a wise investment, but not enough to save the company from bankruptcy three years later - and shareholder antipathy soon thereafter. He produced more "Karate Kid" titles with decreasing degrees of popularity, offering a variation with the 1994 "The Next Karate Kid" starring a girl (a thenunknown Hilary Swank). Meanwhile, Weintraub jumped over to Warner Bros. He returned to his interest in the music industry with the 1992 "Pure Country," a failed attempt to put country star George Strait on the movie map; the Sylvester Stallone action vehicle "The Specialist"; and "Vegas Vacation," in which he also appeared.
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