Jerry Weintraub, who has died aged 77, was not known for underestimating his own expertise as a manager, producer, talent agent and promoter. “If I had been around with Van Gogh or Melville,” he wrote, “they would not have had to wait so long for fame.” As a trailblazing concert promoter, he pioneered the arena tours that are now commonplace for musicians. He worked with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin, and was responsible for shaping the career of the musician John Denver, whom he shepherded to international stardom after seeing him perform in a tiny Greenwich Village club.
As a prominent supporter of the Republican party, Weintraub was close to the former presidents George HW Bush (about whom he produced a documentary) and Ronald Reagan. But he also counted among his friends the actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt, with whom he worked when he produced the 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven and its two sequels. He relished the trappings of his lustrous life and took pride in being a film-maker; fittingly he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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