Fred Weintraub

Fred Robert Weintraub (April 27, 1928 – March 5, 2017) 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. 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. During the early 1960s The Bitter End hosted "Open Mike" Hootenannies every Tuesday night, showcasing young, old, known and unknown folksingers.

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. 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).

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.

Other work In 2011, Weintraub published his memoir, Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me, along with collaborator David Fields, recalling his fifty-year career in the entertainment industry.

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.

Filmography

Producer

Writer

Director

Other credits