Stuart Cornfeld (November 13, 1952 – June 26, 2020) was an American film producer. He was business partners with Ben Stiller in the company Red Hour Productions.
Biography
Cornfeld was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1970s, and graduated with a degree in Psychology. He graduated from the AFI Conservatory in 1975.
During his time at AFI, one of his classmates was actress Anne Bancroft, who was preparing to make her first film as a director, Fatso. She hired Cornfeld as producer and also introduced him to her husband, Mel Brooks. Brooks also hired him to produce his films High Anxiety and History of the World, Part 1. Fatso became Brooks's first dramatic film as a producer. Cornfeld later brought the projects The Elephant Man and The Fly to Brooks, along with their respective directors, David Lynch and David Cronenberg.
The appearance and personality of Les Grossman, the hotheaded and foul-mouthed Hollywood producer played by Tom Cruise in Stiller's film Tropic Thunder, is reportedly based in part on Cornfeld.
On June 26, 2020, Cornfeld died of cancer at age 67.
Filmography
As producer
Fatso
The Fly
Starsky & Hutch
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Duplex
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Moving
Kafka
Zoolander
Blades of Glory
The Ruins
Tropic Thunder
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (executive) Megamind (executive) Submarine (executive) 30 Minutes or Less The Big Year Vamps The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Zoolander 2 The Polka King