Paula Weinstein, veteran Hollywood star and political activist, has died at the age of 78

Paula Weinstein, the film producer, studio executive and political activist who became a fierce advocate for women in her industry, died Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 78 years old.

Her sister, Lisa Weinstein, confirmed the death. She said the reason is not yet known.

In the Hollywood boys’ club, Ms. Weinstein was the rare top executive: During her long career, she was president of United Artists, vice chairman of Warner Bros. and Executive Vice President at 20th Century Fox. She was just 33 when she was hired at Fox in 1978, and when she was promoted to vice president a year later, the Los Angeles Times called her “the highest-ranking woman in the motion picture industry.”

“A man can be mediocre in almost everything, but a woman has to be perfect,” she told Life magazine that year, when she was included in an article about Hollywood’s “Young Tycoons.”

But Ms. Weinstein, who colleagues said had a wicked sense of humor — her sister described her laugh as an infectious chatter — and a fierce commitment to social justice, was unusual in Hollywood outside her gender. As Ken Sunshine, a veteran public relations consultant and longtime Democratic activist, said in a phone interview: “Unlike many, she was not He plays in politics. For her, social and political change was crucial. She was the antithesis of a pseudo-Hollywood activist looking for good PR or a career boost. She was unique in a sea of ​​pretenders.

Activism was the family business: Her mother, Hannah Weinstein, was a journalist and speechwriter who took her three young daughters in 1950 to live in Paris and then London, escaping the country’s bleak and punitive McCarthy-era politics. In Britain, where the family lived for more than a decade, Hannah Weinstein produced films and television series using blacklisted actors and writers such as Ring Lardner Jr. and Ian McLellan Hunter. She repeatedly told her daughters, Lisa recalls, “If you believe in something, you have to be willing to get up off your ass and do something, and if you don’t get up off your ass, you really haven’t believed it.” in it.”

“She was a tough role model,” Lisa Weinstein added.

It was Hannah who led Paula into the film industry, via Jane Fonda.

“Hannah was the first person I asked for money as an activist,” Ms. Fonda said in an email. “The goal was to open a GI office in D.C. in 1970, where concerns facing soldiers could be brought to Congress. She gave me $2,000 — an amazing thing in 1970. A few years later, Hannah called me to ask if I could help her daughter, Paula; Who had just graduated from Columbia, wanted to get a job in Hollywood. She said I owed her one.

The two women then met for lunch at Hamburger Hamlet in Los Angeles and were immediately smitten with each other. They were like-minded, as both had participated in anti-war protests in the 1960s, and both had faced arrests — Ms. Weinstein’s arrest for participating in a protest in Colombia. Soon after, Ms. Weinstein became Ms. Fonda’s agent, and helped her land the role of Lillian Hellman in the film “Julia” (1977), based on Ms. Hellman’s book “Pentimento.”

“It helped that Lillian was Paula’s godmother,” Ms. Fonda said.

Her next job was at Fox, where she oversaw production of the comedy “9 to 5” (1980), starring Ms. Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as female office workers who revolt against their sexist employer. Most recently, she reunited with Ms. Fonda and Ms. Tomlin as executive producer of the long-running Netflix series “Grace and Frankie.”

Ms. Weinstein has produced more than 30 films, including “The Perfect Storm” (2000), starring George Clooney as a Massachusetts fishing boat captain — and co-starring in the epic “Nor’easter” — as well as the comedy “Analyze This.” (1999). ) and its sequel “Analyze It” (2002) with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal. She was also a founder, with Ms. Fonda, Barbra Streisand and others, of the Women’s Political Committee in Hollywood, a fundraising force for liberal candidates and causes from 1984 to the late 1990s.

With her husband, Mark Rosenberg, whom she met while they were members of the national activist organization Students for a Democratic Society, Ms. Weinstein made a number of films, including “The Fabulous Baker Boys” (1989), with Jeff and Beau. Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer, and “Fearless” (1993), also starring Jeff Bridges. They also directed “Citizen Cohn” (1992), an HBO film about Roy Cohn, the lawyer and fixer for Senator Joseph McCarthy — a subject close to Ms. Weinstein’s heart, given her upbringing. Their last production together was “Flesh and Bone” (1993); Mr. Rosenberg died of heart failure at the age of 44 while working on the set of this film.

Ms. Weinstein continued to produce films for Spring Creek Productions, the company she and her husband founded — notably another HBO film, “Recount” (2008), a political thriller based on the delicate ending of the 2000 presidential election and Bush v. Bush. Gore, the Supreme Court case that decided the election in favor of George W. Bush.

“Paula knew how to combine commercial advertising and politics, but not in a medical way,” said Lucy Fisher, a veteran producer and former vice president of Sony Pictures, who considered Weinstein a mentor. It invented the format that became HBO’s endorsement, high-quality drama but behind-the-scenes gossip.

Paula Weinstein was born on November 19, 1945 in Manhattan, the youngest of three daughters. Her mother, Hannah (Dorner) Weinstein, met her father, Isidore Weinstein, known as Pete, when they were hired as speechwriters for Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. At the time, Hannah was a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune and Pete was a reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle.

The couple had separated by 1950, and Hannah subsequently left the country with her daughters. They returned to the United States in 1962, and Paula enrolled at Columbia University soon after.

In addition to her sister Lisa, Ms. Weinstein has another sister, Dina, and a daughter, Hannah Rosenberg.

Since 2013, Ms. Weinstein has served as Chief Content Officer at Tribeca Enterprises, which includes the Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Studios, where she develops branded content and manages mentorship programs for emerging writers and directors. She left Tribeca last fall to focus on political work.

“I don’t want to sit on the sidelines and talk about everything. I really want to be fully involved in campaigns. Both statewide campaigns and national campaigns,” she told Deadline after her departure. “It feels like a moment… between climate And the book ban and everything else I don’t need to go into.”

Upon Ms. Weinstein’s death, condolences poured in from her colleagues and friends, including the writer and producer Deborah Kahn.

“Paola was a force of nature,” Ms. Kahn wrote. “You taught me a lot about a lot of things. How to stand up and be the thing. Stand up front. Talk loudly. Be angry and happy.”