Robert F. Colesberry

Producer

Popular As Robert F. Colesberry Jr.

Birthday March 7, 1946

Birth Sign Pisces

Birthplace Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

DEATH DATE 2004-2-9, New York, New York, U.S. (58 years old)

Nationality United States

#47667 Most Popular

1946

Robert F. Colesberry Jr. (March 7, 1946 – February 9, 2004) was an American film and television producer, best known as a co-creator of the television series The Wire (2002–2008) for HBO, executive producer of the miniseries The Corner (2000), and a producer for Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985), Alan Parker's Mississippi Burning (1988), and Billy Crystal's 61* (2001).

Colesberry was also an occasional actor.

Colesberry was born in Philadelphia.

1960

Colesberry served as an artillery lieutenant in the Army in the mid-1960s.

Colesberry also briefly played baseball and operated a bar in Wildwood, New Jersey.

After being discharged from the Army, he attended Southern Connecticut State University, where he became interested in drama.

1974

He later transferred to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, from which he received his B.F.A. in 1974.

Colesberry began working on films in New York.

1977

He was assistant director for Andy Warhol's Bad (1977) and first assistant director on Alan Parker's musical film Fame (1980).

1984

Colesberry was then a producer for Barry Levinson's The Natural (1984), and Martin Scorsese's black comedies The King of Comedy (1982) and After Hours (1985).

1988

Colesberry received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his work on Parker's Mississippi Burning (1988) and Emmy nominations for 61* (2001) and the television movie Death of a Salesman (1985), based on the Arthur Miller play.

1992

In 1992, Colesberry was married to Karen L. Thorson; Thorson was also a filmmaker and producer on The Wire.

Colesberry was a longtime resident of both New York City and Amagansett, New York.

1999

In 1999, Colesberry began his association with HBO as executive producer of The Corner (2000), a six-hour miniseries adaption of The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, a nonfiction book by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon and former Baltimore police detective Ed Burns.

2000

The show was nominated for four Primetime Emmys in 2000, winning two, including the Award for Outstanding Miniseries, and won a Peabody Award.

In 2000, Colesberry created the HBO series The Wire, written by Simon and Burns.

Simon, Burns, Colesberry, and George Pelecanos were the "brain trust" of The Wire.

Colesberry had a recurring cameo on the series as homicide detective Ray Cole.

2003

Colesberry's death occurred soon after his directing debut on The Wire second-season finale, "Port in a Storm" (2003).

2004

Colesberry was posthumously awarded a Peabody Award for his work on The Wire in May 2004.

Colesberry died in Manhattan at the age of 57 from complications following cardiac surgery on February 9, 2004.

Following his death, the Robert F. Colesberry Scholarship Fund for young filmmakers was established in his honor at the NYU Tisch School.

Colesberry was survived by his wife Karen L. Thorson; two sisters, Jean Brown and Christine Strittmatter; and 11 nephews and nieces.

In episode three of the third season, "Dead Soldiers" (2004), Detective Cole (portrayed by Colesberry) dies off-screen (said to have died while exercising), and the episode depicts an emotional Irish wake for Detective Cole.

He was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted.

2006

The final episode of the fourth season, "Final Grades" (2006), and the series finale, "-30-" (2008), were dedicated to him.