Martin Leon "Marty" Bregman (May 18, 1926 – June 16, 2018) was an American film producer and personal manager. He produced many films, including Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Venom, The Four Seasons (both 1981), Scarface (1983), Sea of Love (1989), Betsy's Wedding (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), The Bone Collector (1999), The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), and Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005).
Early life Bregman was born in New York City to Leon and Ida (Granowski) Bregman. He was Jewish and grew up in the Bronx.Lindsay Rittenhouse, Just Kids From the Bronx: the true story of family, friendship and growing up, New York Observer, March 24, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2018. As a child, he suffered from polio. He began his career selling insurance and first got into the entertainment business as a night club agent.
Career Bregman ventured into film producing in 1973, building projects around Pacino, initially with the Sidney Lumet directed Serpico. The film's acclaim set the path for many more highly acclaimed collaborations with Pacino, including 1975's Dog Day Afternoon, 1983's Scarface, 1989's Sea of Love and 1993's Carlito's Way. In the 1970s Bregman nearly directed David Rabe's screenplay for First Blood with Pacino starring as John Rambo, but Pacino declined to appear because he found the story too dark. Beginning in 1979 with The Seduction of Joe Tynan, and for most of the 1980s, Bregman enjoyed a successful run of films with writer/director Alan Alda. Their creative and business partnership yielded such well received films as The Four Seasons in 1981, Sweet Liberty in 1986, A New Life in 1988 and Betsy's Wedding in 1990. Other films include 1999's The Bone Collector with Denzel Washington and 2002's The Adventures of Pluto Nash, starring Eddie Murphy, one of the producer's rare box-office failures. While in 1983, both Alda and Bregman signed deals with Universal Pictures, he was moved off to movie production studio Lorimar Motion Pictures in 1986. The deal never lasted that long as he returned to Universal in the late 1980s. In 1992, Bregman partnered with Capella Films executive Willi Baer to form Bregman/Baer Productions at Universal Pictures, the deal would later be dissolved in 1997.
Bregman also produced two short-lived television shows, 1980's S*H*E and 1984's The Four Seasons, with Alda, based on the films.
Personal life Bregman lived in New York City and had two sons with former wife Elizabeth Driscoll, Christopher Bregman (Real Estate Entrepreneur), film producer Michael (Sea of Love, Carlito's Way), and a daughter, singer Marissa Bregman, with another wife, actress Cornelia Sharpe (Serpico, Open Season, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, The Next Man, S*H*E, Venom). He died from a cerebral hemorrhage, aged 92, on June 16, 2018.
Filmography He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.
Film Year Film Credit Notes Other notes 1973 Serpico 1975 Dog Day Afternoon 1976 The Next Man 1979 The Seduction of Joe Tynan 1980 S*H*E Simon 1981 The Four Seasons Venom 1983 Eddie Macon's Run Scarface 1986 Sweet Liberty 1987 Real Men 1988 A New Life 1989 Sea of Love 1990 Betsy's Wedding 1992 Whispers in the Dark Blue Ice 1993 The Real McCoy Carlito's Way 1994 The Shadow 1995 Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain 1996 Matilda Executive producer 1997 Nothing to Lose 1998 One Tough Cop 1999 The Bone Collector 2002 The Adventures of Pluto Nash 2003 Carolina 2005 Carlito's Way: Rise to Power Direct-to-video Final film as a producer
As an actor
Year Film Role Notes 1976 The Next Man
Television Year Title Credit 1984 The Four Seasons Executive producer
References
External links