Robert Chartoff obit

Robert Chartoff Dies: Producer Of ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘The Right Stuff,’ ‘Rocky’ Was 81

 

He was not on the list.

Veteran producer Robert Chartoff died this afternoon after battling pancreatic cancer for the past 2 years, his longtime partner Irwin Winkler confirmed. Chartoff, who was 81, had taken a turn for the worse a month ago and passed away at his home in Santa Monica.

“Robert’s work speaks for itself, which is quite a statement,” Winkler told Deadline.” He was also a very charitable, giving man. Not a lot of people knew this, but he supported and built a school for orphans in India. He was … one of the most decent people you would ever meet.”

Chartoff and Winkler shared a Best Picture Oscar as producers for the 1976 film Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone as the iconic title character. The partners were also nominated in the Best Picture category for 1980’s Raging Bull directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, and for 1983’s The Right Stuff, the chronicle of America’s Mercury 7 astronauts directed and written by Philip Kaufman based on the book by Tom Wolfe.

He most recently served as an executive producer on Ender’s Game, based on the classic sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card. The New York City native began making his mark with a handful of distinctive late 1960s movies, among them Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and directed by John Boorman, The Split and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? — the latter film nominated for nine oscars including best director (Sydney Pollack), actress (Jane Fonda) and actor Gig Young, who won.

Chartoff then made a slew of pictures during the 1970s, a period during which he and his producing and directing peers flourished with risky work characterized by nerve and grit. His movies during that era included The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, The New Centurions, The Mechanic in addition to Rocky and Scorsese’s New York, New York. He even had a less well known (and little seen) non musical outing Up The Sandbox with Barbra Streisand as a disillusioned and bored suburban housewife with an outrageous inner fantasy life.

In addition to the orphanage, Chartoff established the RC Charitable Foundation in 1990 to award grants to international schools and other child agencies. He also served on the Community Advisory Board of the Younes and Soraya Israel Studies Center at UCLA.

 

Filmography

 

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

 

Film

Year     Film            Credit            Notes

1967    Point Blank              

1968    The Split                

1969    They Shoot Horses, Don't They?                 

1970    Leo the Last                 

The Strawberry Statement                    

1971    Believe in Me              

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight            

1972    The New Centurions                   

Thumb Tripping                       

The Mechanic              

Up the Sandbox                      

1974    Busting            

S*P*Y*S                    

The Gambler               

1975            Breakout                    

Peeper            

1976    Rocky             

Nickelodeon                

1977    New York, New York               

Valentino            Executive producer     

1978    Comes a Horseman            Executive producer     

Uncle Joe Shannon                      

1979    Rocky II                     

1980    Raging Bull                 

1981    True Confessions                 

1982    Rocky III                   

1983    The Right Stuff                   

1985    Beer                

Rocky IV                    

1990    Rocky V                    

1992    Straight Talk                

2004    In My Country                       

2006    Rocky Balboa            Executive producer     

2010    The Tempest                      

2011    The Mechanic            Executive producer     

2013    Ender's Game              

2014    A Midsummer Night's Dream            Executive producer     

The Gambler               

2015    Creed               Final film as a producer

 

Thanks

Year     Film            Role

2015    Creed            In memory of