UT Austin’s Harry Ransom Center receives archive of ‘Rocky,’ ‘Goodfellas’ artifacts

AUSTIN, Texas - You can see a Hollywood archive of scripts and rare photos from classic films such as "Goodfellas," "Rocky" and more here in Austin.

Thousands of scripts, photos, letters and diaries that form the archive of Oscar-winning producer and director Irwin Winkler have been donated to the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin.

Winkler, known for his collaborations with director Martin Scorcese and his long-time association with actor Robert De Niro, has produced or directed nearly 60 movies in his over half-century career in the film industry.

The Winkler archive spans from 1966 to 2022 and includes more than 300 scripts, 3,500 photos, correspondence with friends and collaborators, almost four decades of diaries and draft pages from Winkler's 2019 memoir.

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Production still from "Creed." At left is Michael B. Jordan, while Winkler is on the right. (Harry Ransom Center)

Winkler's filmography includes Raging Bull, Goodfellas, "The Wolf of Wall Street," "New York, New York" and "Rocky," which won the producer an Academy Award for Best Picture.

"The Irwin Winkler papers are a window into life on the set of some of the most memorable and iconic films of recent decades," said Ransom Center Director Stephen Enniss. "As long as Irwin Winkler’s films are enjoyed by audiences, his archive will be a resource for understanding the magic of filmmaking."

"The films Irwin Winkler has made, both as a producer and as a director, are marked by a compassion, sensitivity and respect for his characters and their relationships," said Steve Wilson, the Ransom Center’s Robert De Niro Curator of Film. "His collaborations with Robert De Niro in particular are now regarded as classics and are complemented and deepened by the materials in De Niro’s archive at the Center. Mr. Winkler’s work will be studied by students and scholars for generations to come. I’m grateful to him for entrusting us with his life’s work."

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The archive will be added to the Center's film collection, which tells the stories of significant Hollywood producers, directors, writers and actors from all eras of movie making. The collection also features works by Stella Adler, Paul Schrader, Tom Stoppard, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Robert De Niro, who began donating his archive in 2006.

"Irwin Winkler’s gift of his collection to the Harry Ransom Center is really meaningful to the Center, film students, scholars and to me personally," De Niro said. "Irwin is a respected and dear friend who I have worked with and known for decades. A true film statesman. Welcome to the Ransom family."

"Now more than ever, the preservation of film and its story-making process is crucial to guard the flame of Hollywood’s history for generations present and future," Winkler said. "The Harry Ransom Center is an exceptional curator of collections, and I am thrilled to open my personal archive to them for the education of filmmakers to come."