Bert Schneider
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Berton "Bert" Schneider (May 5, 1933 – December 12, 2011) was an American movie producer, responsible for several important and topical films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Born in New York City,[1] he was the son of onetime Columbia Pictures president Abraham Schneider. The younger Schneider tended toward the rebellious politics of the day. Briefly a student at Cornell University, he was expelled.
In the early 1960s, he worked for Screen Gems, Columbia's television division. In 1965, Schneider formed a partnership with Bob Rafelson creating Raybert Productions with the director. It was Schneider and Rafelson who brought The Monkees, a situation comedy about a fictional rock band (who became a real group to meet public demand, and their own aspirations), to network television, in 1966.
The success of the Monkees allowed Schneider and Rafelson to break into feature films, first with the counterculture film Head (1968), starring The Monkees and featuring a screenplay cowritten by Jack Nicholson. Unfortunately, the movie bombed in its initial release, with Monkees fans disappointed that the disjointed, stream-of-consciousness ring of stories wasn't just an expanded episode, and 'hipper' audiences staying away in droves. A retrospective showing in 1973 helped turn critical opinion around, and today Head is largely praised and enjoyed as a Sixties period piece.
They had their first major success with Easy Rider (1969), which ushered in the era of New Hollywood, then followed it up with Five Easy Pieces (1970), which Rafelson directed. Schneider and Rafelson added a partner, Stephen Blauner, and Raybert turned into BBS Productions. They subsequently made a series of significant films, including Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971) and Rafelson's The King of Marvin Gardens (1972). In 1975, Schneider gained a Best Documentary Oscar for producing Hearts and Minds (1974).
Peter Fonda based his character Terry Valentine in The Limey partly on Schneider, according to Fonda's interview on the DVD.
Private life and death
Schneider was married and divorced from his first wife, Judith, with whom he had two children, Jeff and Audrey, and later married three more times.
He died of natural causes aged 78 in Los Angeles on December 12, 2011. He is survived by his son and daughter.[2]
References
Bert's brother was film producer Harold Schneider, who passed away over a decade ago.
