Bert Schneider

Early life and education

Schneider was born to a wealthy Jewish family in New York City and raised in New Rochelle, New York. His father was Abraham Schneider who succeeded Harry Cohn as the president of Columbia Pictures. He was the middle of two brothers, the younger Harold and the elder Stanley. The Schneider tended toward the rebellious politics of the day. Briefly a student at Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, he was ultimately expelled.

His brother, Harold Schneider, also became a film producer.

Career

In 1953, he worked for Screen Gems, Columbia's television division in Los Angeles. In 1965, Schneider formed a partnership with the film director Bob Rafelson, creating Raybert Productions. The duo brought to television The Monkees (1966–1968), a situation comedy about a fictional rock band (who became a real group, The Monkees, to meet public demand, and their own aspirations).

The success of The Monkees allowed Schneider and Rafelson to break into feature films, first with the counterculture film Head (1968), starring The Monkees, directed by Rafelson and featuring a screenplay co-written by Rafelson and Jack Nicholson. The film bombed in its initial release due to poor distribution and the lack of a target audience for 1968. Monkees fans were disappointed that the disjointed, stream-of-consciousness ring of stories was not just an expanded episode. Art film enthusiasts may have embraced its creativity but were not interested in a film by the "pre-fab four." In recent years, the film has received above average reviews from critics and fans alike as an interesting 1960s period piece.

They had their first major success with Easy Rider (1969), which ushered in the era of New Hollywood. Then followed with the drama film Five Easy Pieces (1970), which Rafelson directed. Following Five Easy Pieces, Schneider and Rafelson added a partner, Stephen Blauner, and Raybert turned into BBS Productions.

They subsequently made a series of films, including the drama films The Last Picture Show (1971), directed by Peter Bogdanovich and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), directed by Rafelson. In 1975 he was a member of the jury at the 9th Moscow International Film Festival.

Academy Award controversy

In 1975, Schneider received an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for producing Hearts and Minds (1974), a documentary film about the Vietnam War, directed by Peter Davis. His acceptance speech was one of the most politically controversial in the ceremony's history. Schneider's speech included this statement: "It’s ironic that we’re here at a time just before Vietnam is about to be liberated." He then read a telegram from the head of the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris peace talks. It thanked the antiwar movement "for all they have done on behalf of peace. Greetings of friendship to all American people." After receiving thousands of angry telegrams backstage, Frank Sinatra appeared later in the show to read a disclaimer that disavowed Schneider's statement, which in turn provoked angry responses from actors Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. Beatty later berated Sinatra on stage, calling him "you old Republican."

Personal life and death

In 1954, he married his first wife, Judy Feinberg (born 1936), who was also Jewish and from a wealthy family. They had two children: Jeffrey and Audrey. They later divorced and he was subsequently married three more times.

Schneider died of natural causes, aged 78, in Los Angeles, California. He was survived by his son and daughter.

In popular culture

Peter Fonda based his character, Terry Valentine, in the crime film The Limey (1999) partly on Schneider, according to Fonda's interview on the film's DVD.