Judd Bernard, who partnered with fellow producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff to bring the Lee Marvin neo-noir classic Point Blank to the big screen, has died. He was 94.
Bernard died Jan. 25 surrounded by his family at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, his son, Michael Bernard, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Chicago native also produced and wrote the screenplay for the Robert Parrish-directed thriller The Marseille Contract (1974), featuring Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn and James Mason.
After he and Winkler made their producing debuts on the Elvis Presley starrer Double Trouble (1967) — the first film from Chartoff-Winkler Productions — they commissioned a script based on the Donald E. Westlake novel The Hunter for Point Blank (1967).
The first feature shot at Alcatraz — the prison had closed in 1963 — it was directed by John Boorman and starred Marvin as a crook who’s determined to recover the loot that was stolen from him.
He and Winkler then produced Blue (1968), a Western that starred Terence Stamp, Karl Malden and Ricardo Montalbán.
Born in Chicago on June 20, 1927, and raised in the city, Bernard attended the University of Wisconsin before moving to New York City to become a band manager. He then worked as a publicist who represented such clients as Billie Holiday, David O. Selznick, Stanley Kramer, Ben Hecht and Louis B. Mayer.
His producing résumé included the Glenda Jackson-starrer Negatives, directed by first-time director and lifelong friend Peter Medak; The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970), starring Rod Taylor; Deep End (1970), helmed by Jerzy Skolimowski; Inside Out (1975), starring Telly Savalas; and Blood Red (1989), starring Eric Roberts and Dennis Hopper.
He also co-wrote Inside Out and The Class of Miss MacMichael (1978), starring Jackson.
A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for more than 65 years, Bernard was passionate about his involvement with the Academy’s foreign film committee, his son said.
Survivors also include his wife, Patricia — he first met her when she was a producers assistant on Double Trouble — daughter Alicia and grandchildren Tallulah, Callum, Eli and Leila.
Source: HollyWood
