Beginning as a lawyer, Robert Chartoff worked his way from personal manager to agent to producer, finally becoming one of the most respected names in the film industry. His collaboration with Irwin Winkler (Chartoff-Winkler Productions) yielded both commercial blockbusters (all the "Rocky" films beginning with the Academy Award-winning Best Picture of 1976) and intelligent, critical successes like Sydney Pollack's Depression-era Shoot Horses, Don't They" (1969), Martin Scorsese's biopic of boxer Jake La Motta, "Raging Bull" (1980) and Philip Kaufman's Oscar-nominated study of the US space
