Bruce Paltrow

BRUCE PALTROW

Date of Birth: November 27, 1940
Date of Death: October 3, 2002

Father to Academy Award-winner Gwyneth, and director Jake, Bruce and his actress wife Blythe Danner created an artistic atmosphere where their children learned to thrive in the motion picture arts.

Born in New York city, Paltrow attended Tulane University. He met Blythe while working on a 1969 off Broadway production of Someone's Comin' Hungry. He produced the play, while Blythe was one of the stars. After marrying Blythe in 1970, he wrote and produced the television film, Shirts/Skins, a comedy about six businessmen who have a weekly after-hours basketball game and get caught up in a bet about a hide-and-seek contest.

He then tried his hand at directing in 1978 with the television series The White Shadow, which he also produced. In 1982, Paltrow had the chance to produce and direct the popular drama series St. Elsewhere.

He did not work on feature films until 1982, when he produced and directed the film, A Little Sex. Starring Kate Capshaw and Tim Matheson, this romantic comedy focused on the hopeless tale of dating in the 1980s.

In 1985, he directed an episode of the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street. Paltrow returned to the director's chair again after Gywneth won an Oscar in 1999, to direct her in the feature Duets (2000). Around the time of filming, Paltrow was diagnosed with throat cancer, but after filming wrapped he had surgery, and was well enough to be escorted to the film's opening by his daughter.

In September 2002, he flew to Rome where Gwyneth was filming a movie, to celebrate her 30th birthday. While there, he suffered from pneumonia and complications from an unexpected recurrence of the throat cancer, and died in a hospital in Rome on October 3, 2002.

Filmography:

Duets (2000)
A Little Sex (1982)