Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s Mother Miriam Dies at 90

Miriam Weinstein, the mother of Hollywood powerhouse film producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, died on Wednesday at her home in Westport, Connecticut, The New York Times reports. She was 90.

Weinstein served as half of the inspiration for Miramax, the production and film distribution company created by her sons.

The brothers combined her name with their father’s, Max, to come up with the name of their first film company, which was launched in 1979.

Max, who was a diamond cutter, died in 1976 of a sudden heart attack at the age of 52, when Harvey was 24 and Bob was 22.

Weinstein told The New York Times in 1997 about the moment her sons told her they’d named their first film company after her and her husband.

“I remember when they called from Buffalo and told me they had named the company Miramax — meaning Miriam and Max,” she said. “It was the ultimate compliment for a mother and dad. Sometimes I slip into a film, all by myself, here in the city, like ‘Shall We Dance?’ and look at the logo as the movie starts, and seeing our names joined like that ——” She never finished the sentence, according to the Times.

She helped out her sons by working as a receptionist at the company’s first headquarters in New York City. She was born in 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of two daughters of Joseph and Sarah Postel.

Weinstein is survived by nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.