From Lenny Bruce to Bruce Lee, ‘Woodstock‘ to ‘Enter the Dragon‘ and beyond. Fred Weintraub leaves a significant legacy…
5th March 2017 saw the passing of veteran producer Fred Weintraub at the age of 89, after a life that encompassed music, comedy, TV, movies, martial-arts and so much more. The original owner and host of the club The Bitter End in New York, Weintraub discovered legendary comedian Lenny Bruce, Peter, Paul and Mary, Randy Newman and the Isley Brothers, while Neil Diamond, Woody Allen, Frank Zapa, George Carlin, and Bob Dillon all performed there.
Weintraub moved to LA and got involved with film and television production, including overseeing the production of Woodstock: The Movie and a little movie called Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee, that would become one of the most highest grossing and influential martial arts movies of all time. Weintraub would work with Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest and Enter the Dragon director Robert Clouse on a number of projects following Enter the Dragon including Game of Death, Golden Needles, The Big Brawl (which saw Jackie Chan making his English language debut), High Road to China with Tom Selleck and Cynthia Rothrock’s China O’Brien 1 and 2.
Clouse and Weintraub would also collaborate on Force Five with Joe Lewis whose debut movie Jaguar Lives was also produced by Weintraub, Gymkata and Born to Ride. Weintraub’s other credits would include Tom Horn with Steve McQueen, The JFK Assassination: The Jim Garrison Tapes, The New Adventures of Robin Hood, and Amazons & Gladiators.
As well as working with many of the biggest names in the world of eastern martial arts movie making Weintraub produced some of the most well loved English language martial arts movies of the last 40 years.
He passed away from natural causes after battling Parkinson’s Disease, and is survived by his wife Jackie, his children Sandra, Barbara, Max and Zachary, as well as several grandchildren. Weintraub’s memoirs written with David Fields are available at: http://bruce-lee-woodstock-and-me.com/buy-the-book.html
