Thursday, October 3, 2002
Paltrow wrote, produced and directed "Shadow"
Associated Press
ROME -- Television producer and director Bruce Paltrow, who created the wildly popular late-1970s TV show "The White Shadow," has died in Italy. He was 58.
The New York-born Paltrow suffered a heart attack and died at a
Rome hospital before dawn Wednesday, the Entertainment Tonight
television program reported earlier. He had been battling throat cancer.
Paltrow was the husband of actress Blythe Danner and father of Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow. He directed the quirky karaoke road movie "Duets" (2000), in which his daughter starred, and the TV hospital drama "St. Elsewhere."
A U.S. diplomatic official said on condition of anonymity that
Paltrow died in Rome, and that the American Embassy was informed of
the death Thursday.
"The consular section of the embassy was contacted by the
hospital where Mr. Paltrow died. It is the embassy's responsibility
to help with the return of the remains," the official said, adding
no further details.
Paltrow traveled from his Los Angeles home to Italy to celebrate his daughter's 30th birthday
last week. They were staying in a villa in Cetona, a town near Siena in Tuscany, a film industry source said.
He had made several public appearances in Italy in the last
week, including at the Italian premiere of the film "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise.
In "Duets," which Bruce Paltrow directed and co-produced,
Gwyneth Paltrow co-stars as a Vegas showgirl who hits the highway
with her long-lost dad, a karaoke hustler played by pop singer Huey Lewis.
In the original script, her character did not sing, but her
father added it to the story.
"I wrote it in because I felt it was essential for the
character to sing," Bruce Paltrow said at the time. "I thought it
would be a way for her to connect with her father. And I knew how
well Gwyneth could sing. When she and her mother sing together, you
just can't believe it."
Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar for Best Actress for "Shakespeare in Love,"
said she saw it as an advantage taking direction from her father.
"I think he's the smartest person I've ever known in my life,"
she had said. "And also he's my Dad. I thought, maybe I'll work
and get spoiled at the same time."
When she received her Oscar, Gwyneth Paltrow referred to her
ties with her parents and her grandparents. Shaking slightly and
stammering at times as she accepted the Oscar from Jack Nicholson,
Gwyneth Paltrow thanked everyone from her "Grandpa Buster" to her
co-star Joseph Fiennes.
"I would not have been able to play this role had I not
understood love of a tremendous magnitude and for that I thank my
family," she said.
For television, Bruce Paltrow produced and directed episodes of
the hospital drama "St. Elsewhere," directed an episode of the
show "Homicide: Life on the Street," and wrote, produced and
directed "The White Shadow" (1978), about a former basketball
player who coaches a mostly black high school team.
He is also survived by his son, film director Jake Paltrow.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.
