Gary Weis is known for creating multiple short films that aired on Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s.
13 Facts About Gary Weis
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Gary Weis co-produced and provided visual effects for the documentary Jimi Hendrix ; he co-directed the Beatlemania spoof All You Need Is Cash with the film's star, Eric Idle; he directed the comedy film Diary of a Young Comic starring Richard Lewis, as well as 80 Blocks from Tiffany's, a documentary about gangs in the South Bronx.
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Gary Weis directed several music videos in the 1980s, including the video for Paul Simon's single "You Can Call Me Al" and for George Harrison's version of the song "Got My Mind Set on You".
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Gary Weis told the Los Angeles Times that it was "the most frightening workday I've ever had," although he had left for the day by the time The Rolling Stones took the stage.
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Gary Weis co-produced the 1973 documentary Jimi Hendrix along with Joe Boyd and John Head.
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Gary Weis told the San Francisco Examiner that he was not a particular fan of the musician prior to the creation of Jimi Hendrix, but gained an appreciation for the musician through his work on the film.
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Gary Weis directed of over 45 short films for Saturday Night Live that aired in 1975 and 1977.
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Gary Weis started as an assistant director then took over the position of primary director of the show's film shorts after Albert Brooks' departure from the show in 1976.
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The first of such films was All You Need Is Cash, a Beatlemania mockumentary, which Gary Weis produced and co-directed with Eric Idle, who starred in the film.
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Gary Weis decided to put Lewis in the film after watching him perform at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
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Gary Weis directed Steve Martin's comedy special A Wild and Crazy Guy that aired on NBC in 1978.
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Later that summer, Gary Weis filmed the documentary 80 Blocks from Tiffany's, which documented the lives of gang members in the South Bronx, a neighborhood that was suffering from a high level of crime and urban decay at the time.
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Gary Weis was married to Kathryn Ireland, a star of the Bravo reality-television series Million Dollar Decorators.