Robert B. Weide (born June 20, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He has directed a number of documentaries and was the principal director and an executive producer of ''

Curb Your Enthusiasm ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' is an American television sitcom produced and broadcast by HBO since October 15, 2000, and created by Larry David, who stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself. It follows David's life as a semi-retired televi ...

'' for the show's first five years. His documentaries have focused on four comedians: W. C. Fields,

Mort Sahl Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event t ...

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

, and

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

. His latest documentary, '' Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time'' (2021), explores the life and works of

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

. Weide has received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination and

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

win for '' Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth'' (1999). He also received Emmy Awards for ''W. C. Fields: Head Up'' (1986), and ''

''.

Early work and education

Weide began working with film at an early job inspecting 16 mm educational films at the Fullerton Public Library in Orange County, California. In 1978, while taking film production courses at

Orange Coast College Orange Coast College (OCC) is a public community college in Costa Mesa in Orange County, California. It was founded in 1947, with its first classes opening in the fall of 1948. It provides Associate of Art and Associate of Science degrees, cert ...

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish for " Table Coast") is a city in Orange County, California. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including part of the South Coast Plaza–John ...

, Weide decided to produce a documentary film on the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

, inspired by his love of their work. Undeterred by repeated rejections of his applications to the

USC School of Cinema-Television The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for S ...

, he worked on the project on his own time and with help from Charles H. Joffe got the rights to clips necessary to make the film. ''The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell'' was broadcast in 1982 on PBS and became "one of the highest-rated programs in PBS history".

Career

''W. C. Fields: Straight Up'' (1986) Weide co-wrote ''W. C. Fields: Straight Up'' (1986) with Joseph Adamson and Ronald J. Fields. Adamson directed it, and

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

narrated. In an interview with ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', Weide said: "The film is 94 minutes long. We had access to all of his feature films, and clips from 1915 on. We have newsreel footage, outtakes, and material never seen before. We also have interviews with people who knew and/or worked with Fields, or have special knowledge of him, including Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Will Fowler, Madge Kennedy, who played in the 1923 stage production of ‘Poppy’ and co-starred in the movie,

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

, Ronald J. Fields, propman Harry Caplan and an audio interview with the grown-up Baby Leroy." ''Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition'' (1989) Weide's next project concerned the career of

. The project was part of the

American Masters ''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...

documentary series, which originally ran on PBS in 1989. ''Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth'' (1998) In 1998, Weide directed the documentary '' Swear to Tell the Truth'', which received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

narrated it, and it featured interviews with Bruce's ex-wife Honey, mother Sally Marr and former TV host

Steve Allen Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...

, who had Bruce on his show a few times. The film debuted on HBO. ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' From 2000 to 2005, Weide served as principal director and an executive producer of

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...

's HBO comedy series ''

''. He became involved in the series after receiving a script by David titled "Prognosis Negative". In 1998 David told Weide that HBO was interested in doing a comedy special about David's return to stand-up—"ostensibly a documentary with some behind-the-scenes footage. And he told me he wanted me to direct it." The special turned out to be the beginning of the series. Since then David and Weide have often collaborated, with Weide serving as a director and executive producer. Weide returned with the show in 2007, directing "The Anonymous Donor", and has continued to guest direct since. Weide received several

nominations for his work on the show and won an Emmy in 2003 for his work as director during its third season. His ending credit on the show became part of a popular

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

. ''How to Lose Friends & Alienate People'' Weide's first feature film as director, '' How to Lose Friends & Alienate People'', was released in October 2008, to generally unfavorable reviews, though it topped the United Kingdom's box office during its opening weekend. ''Woody Allen: A Documentary'' (2011) Weide's next documentary, '' Woody Allen: A Documentary'', explored the career of filmmaker and comedian

as part of PBS's

series. The film takes a look at Allen's nearly seven-decade career as a director and comedian. It features interviews with Allen,

Diane Keaton Diane Keaton (''née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Glo ...

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...

Chris Rock Christopher Julius Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and filmmaker. Known for his work in comic film, television and stage, he has received multiple accolades, including three Grammy Awards for best come ...

Owen Wilson Owen Cunningham Wilson (born November 18, 1968) is an American actor. He has had a long association with filmmaker Wes Anderson with whom he shared writing and acting credits for ''Bottle Rocket'' (1996), '' Rushmore'' (1998), and '' The Royal ...

, Penelope Cruz, and

. It received favorable reviews, earning a 90% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 21 reviews. The website's critical consensus states: "Driving aside the most polemical aspects of the director's biography, ''Woody Allen: A Documentary'' draws an interesting picture of the filmmaker's opus while allowing some glimpses of his intense personal life." ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' critic

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...

wrote: "It’s a close look at how Allen’s career was shaped, from his Brooklyn youth to his precocious launch as a comedy writer, his rise to local fame as a standup comedian and to national celebrity on television, his move from screenwriter to director of the 'early, funny' films to internationally lionized auteur to pariah and, gradually, back again." Weide was the director and main writer for '' Mr. Sloane'', a 2014 British comedy series.

Work with Kurt Vonnegut

Weide wrote and produced the 1996 film adaptation of

's ''

Mother Night ''Mother Night'' is a novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut, first published in February 1962. The title of the book is taken from Goethe's ''Faust'' (and ultimately from the Egyptian Goddess Nuit, mother of Osiris, Horus, Isis, Set, and Nepht ...

''. With Vonnegut's support, Weide chronicled him on film starting in 1988 and has obtained footage of him from 16 mm home movies dating back to 1925. Weide was also working on a film adaptation of ''The Sirens of Titan'' until the film rights were sold to another producer. Writing under the pseudonym ''Wyaduck'' (a Marx Brothers reference), Weide was a frequent poster to

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...

group alt.books.kurt-vonnegut, where he reported on the progress of the ''Mother Night'' project. He was mentioned in Vonnegut's ''

Timequake ''Timequake'' is a 1997 semi-autobiographical work by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Marketed as a novel, the book was described as a "stew" by Vonnegut, in which he summarizes a novel he had been struggling with for a number of years. Plot summary Vonne ...

''. In 2001, Weide directed a revival of Vonnegut's play ''Happy Birthday, Wanda June'' starring his wife, Linda Bates, as Penelope.

Filmography

As writer As director

Awards and nominations

Personal life

Weide married actress Linda Bates. His marriage to her and her subsequent issues with

progressive supranuclear palsy Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a late-onset degenerative disease involving the gradual deterioration and death of specific volumes of the brain. The condition leads to symptoms including loss of balance, slowing of movement, difficulty ...

are chronicled in ''Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time''.

References

External links

*
Biography
from the HBO website
40-Minute audio interview with Robert Weide
on The Sound of Young America {{DEFAULTSORT:Weide, Robert B. 1959 births Place of birth missing (living people) American documentary filmmakers American film producers American male screenwriters American television directors American television producers American television writers Primetime Emmy Award winners Living people Directors Guild of America Award winners American male television writers