'Easy Rider' Producer Bert Schneider Dies At 78

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Five Easy Pieces" producer Bert Schneider, credited for inspiring a "New Hollywood" band of independent filmmakers, has died in Los Angeles at 78.

With producer-director Bob Rafelson, Schneider also created the Monkees pop band.

Daughter Audrey Simon tells the Los Angeles Times that Schneider died on Monday of natural causes at Olympia Medical Center.

Schneider produced 11 movies from 1969 to 1981, including "Easy Rider," ''Five Easy Pieces" and "The Last Picture Show." Those movies about rootlessness and discontent became symbols of a new era that helped filmmakers break out of the studio system.

Schneider also produced the Oscar-winning 1974 anti-Vietnam War documentary "Hearts and Minds."

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