Woody Allen and the James Bond films Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only. Albeck also oversaw two films in the Rocky series, both of which were box office successes. Raging Bull, with Robert De Niro playing the role of Jake LaMotta, was a critical success that went on to be ranked on the American Film Institute's top 100 films of all time. Albeck's undoing was the film Heaven's Gate, which went several times over its original budget and earned little in box office revenue in the wake of overwhelmingly negative reviews, such as by Vincent Canby of The New York Times, who called the film "an unqualified disaster" when it was released in November 1980. In the following weeks Albeck was named chairman of United Artists and removed from his post as president, resigning from the firm in February 1981 in the wake of media reports that he had been forced to retire. In the wake of losses amounting to $44 million, making it what was then the biggest money losing film in history, the studio was purchased in May 1981 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from Transamerica to form MGM/UA in a deal valued at $380 million. In his retirement, he operated the award-winning Albeck Family Christmas Tree farm in Lafayette Township, New Jersey, growing blue spruce trees on a farm. A resident of Manhattan, Albeck died there at the age of 89 on September 29, 2010, at NYU Langone Medical Center due to heart failure. He was survived by his second wife, Lotte, as well as by his son and daughter from his first marriage, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. References 1921 births 2010 deaths American film studio executives People from Lafayette Township, New Jersey People from Manhattan People from Yokohama Soviet expatriates in Japan Expatriates in the Dutch East Indies Soviet emigrants to the United States