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Blythe Danner’s Late Husband Bruce Paltrow Was the ‘Heart of the Family’: All About the Television Producer
Huff actress Blythe Danner found fame on Broadway in the late ‘60s before marrying producer Bruce Paltrow. The pair welcomed two talented children during their 32-year marriage: Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Paltrow. Bruce died in October 2002, but his memory lives on with his wife, children and grandchildren.
Blythe and Bruce began dating after she moved to New York to become a Broadway star. In 1969, she starred in the play Butterflies Are Free. On opening night, Bruce, who was working as a stage director at the time, popped the question to the blonde beauty. The play has since held a very special place in her heart since it also earned her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
Blythe and Bruce were married shortly after and quickly established themselves as one of Hollywood’s power couples. The mother of two snagged roles in 1972’s To Kill a Clown alongside Alan Alda and 1974’s Lovin’ Molly. Bruce, on the other hand, was an in-demand producer and began working on the series The White Shadow in 1978. The show was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series at the 1981 Emmy Awards.
In 1982, Bruce signed on as the producer of NBC’s St. Elsewhere. The medical drama starred Denzel Washington and Mark Harmon and is largely credited for helping boost their careers. He earned several Emmy nominations for his work on the series until its end in 1988.
In addition to playing a key role in the success of several popular television shows, the New York native also worked on movies like 1989’s High, 1993’s New Year and 2003’s Fargo. Both Bruce and Blythe balanced their busy careers while raising two children who would go on to become actors themselves. The Meet the Fockers actress admitted to Us Weekly in March 2019 that her husband’s parenting style deserved tremendous praise.
“Yes, [Gwyneth] was [naughty when she was younger],” Blythe said. “I had old-fashioned parental parameters and they didn’t always work.”
The Emmy nominee was happy to have her husband there during her daughter’s rebellious phase. “Her father was the great [stabilizer],” she continued. “You know, the real heart of the family. Thank God he was there.”
In October 2002, Gwyneth and her family went to celebrate her 30th birthday in Italy. Bruce had been diagnosed with oral cancer three years prior. He died from complications of the disease and pneumonia just a few days after the celebration. The Iron Man actress honored her father during her wedding to her second husband, Brad Falchuk, in 2018.
“For years, I would go into kind of the deepest depression of all time around my birthday and then I thought, ‘I’ve got to reframe this somehow. My father would not want this for me,’” Gwyneth shared in a March 2019 episode of Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Experts podcast. “My birthday is September 27, and so this past September, I got married on the 29th of September. His ashes are buried under this beautiful tree at my house and we got married there — right near my dad … kind of on my dad.”
