Who

Legendary film producer Marty Bregman was the driving force behind a collection of mega-hits in the 1970s and '80s, including Serpico, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon.

Backstory

Bregman started out in talent management, repping stars like Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Faye Dunaway, Barbra Streisand, and Al Pacino. He turned to producing in the early 1970s; the first movie he assembled, Serpico, starring his client Pacino, was a critical and commercial smash. Subsequent productions with Pacino, such as the Sidney Lumet-helmed Dog Day Afternoon, were also big box office draws. Less successful were the movies he produced with ex-client Alan Alda, like 1981's The Four Seasons and the turkey Sweet Liberty. In 1983 Bregman released the biggest hit of his career, the gangster epic Scarface. While initially a box office dud—when it hit theaters, it was widely panned by critics for its over-the-top violence—it's now regarded as a classic crime flick, and is the favorite movie of virtually every rapper on the planet. In recent years, though, it's been increasingly clear that Bregman's best days are behind him. He produced 1999's The Bone Collector and the 2002 Eddie Murphy comedy The Adventures of Pluto Nash, a now-legendary disaster that one critic described as "unremittingly awful."

For the record

Bregman is credited with discovering Pacino in a play called Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, and helped the actor book his first film, 1971's druggie drama Panic In Needle Park. The producer of the movie, Dominick Dunne, chose Pacino over another then-unknown actor, Robert De Niro.

Personal

Bregman has two children, Michael and Christopher, with his first wife, Elizabeth Driscoll. He met his second wife, Cornelia Sharpe, on the set of Serpico; they have one daughter, social fixture Marissa. His son Michael has gone into the family business, serving as a producer on Sea of Love and Carlito's Way. Bregman lives in the famed El Dorado on Central Park West, the same building that's home to Alec Baldwin.

True story

In 2003, Bregman sent George Clooney what the actor called "the angriest letter I ever had in my life." Clooney had covertly borrowed a camera crane from the set of Pluto Nash for his directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and later admitted it on a talk show. Bregman subsequently sent Clooney the furious missive, as well as an invoice for $790—the cost of the crane for the night.