Irwin Winkler Looks Back at His Oscar Nights, Including the One Where ‘I Wanted to Shoot Myself’

Producer Irwin Winkler has more than earned the right to be contentedly sipping martinis on a desert isle far from the Hollywood milieu that made him the nexus among legendary titans such as Martin Scorsese, Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro and Ryan Coogler. But at 92 years of age, Winkler is busier than ever as he shepherds Barry Levinson’s 2024 release “Alto Knights”—starring De Niro as warring gangsters Vito Genovese and Frank Costello (“You’re gonna see the great American actor doing something that is beyond anything you’ve ever imagined,” Winkler said)—as well as readies a fourth “Creed” installment.

Winkler currently has high awards hopes for “Creed III,” which scored very big as a spring release, and is doing pretty much what he did at the start of his career: promoting upstart talents in new, enterprising roles, this time with actor Michael B.