Hollywood producer Daniel Goldberg, whose hits include Space Jam, The Hangover, and Old School, has died. He was 74 years old. No cause of death was given, but his passing was confirmed by his brother, screenwriter Harris Goldberg, who said Daniel passed away on Wednesday in Los Angeles. During his long career, in addition to a number of big box office hits, Goldberg earned an Emmy nomination for outstanding made for television movie in 1996 for producing HBO’s The Late Shift, which centered on the battle for The Tonight Show between Jay Leno and David Letterman.
In 1988, Goldberg directed The Feds, a film that starred Rebecca De Mornay and Mary Gross, and was produced by his wife, Ilona Herzberg.
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“He was a gentle, lovely guy, he was my hero,” Harris Goldberg, best known as the writer of Deuce Bigalow, told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was everything I measured myself against.”
Goldberg was born in 1949 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Goldberg befriended filmmaker Ivan Reitman in the 1960s, and their relationship was one of the most personally and professionally rewarding of Goldberg’s career. They worked together on a short film at McMaster University in 1966, and later, Goldberg, Reitman, Eugene Levy, and Dennis Matheson became a board member of the McMaster Film Board in 1969.
Reitman and Goldberg produced a film called Columbus of Sex, based on the pornographic memoir My Secret Life and directed by John Hofsess. Reitman, Hofsess, and Goldberg were all arrested and charged with making and exhibiting am obscene film — a charge that actually stuck, resulting in a fine and a year of probation. The shared trauma of the experience apparently contributed to making Reitman and Goldberg friends for life.
The pair worked together in various capacities as writer, director, and/or producer on The House by the Lake (1976), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Heavy Metal (1981), Feds, Junior (1994), Space Jam (1996), Private Parts (1997), Commandments (1997), Fathers’ Day (1997), Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Road Trip (2000), Evolution (2001), Killing Me Softly (2002), Old School (2003) and EuroTrip (2004).
Later in his career, Goldberg teamed up with Joker filmmaker Todd Phillips, producing a number of projects for the director including Road Trip, Old School and School for Scoundrels.
Goldberg is survived by his wife, Waterworld and Evan Almighty producer Ilona Herzberg, as well as his brother Harris and his sisters, Kathy and Amy.Our condolences go out to Goldberg’s friends, family, collaborators, and fans at this difficult time.
