Lyle Trachtenberg

Background

Lyle Trachtenberg was born on January 1, 1956 in Los Angeles, California.  In 1976, after graduating high school, Trachtenberg enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles and earned his Bachelor‘s degree in 1980.

Career

Lyle Trachtenberg began his acting career in the mid 1990’s. He first appeared in the horror movie “From Dusk Till Dawn” playing himself. The movie was released in 1995. His next acting experience was as the role of Husky Guy in “Beach Movie” in 1997. His movie career was short and the last film in which he appeared was “Full Tilt Boogie” where he again played himself as the Union Organizer of the I.A.T.S.E. Trachtenberg also appeared on The 21st Annual People's Choice Awards. After these few short appearances Lyle left the performance side of the motion picture industry but continued working show business through his work for IATSE as union representative. Lyle Trachtenberg is known to be a very hardworking person. In 2004, IATSE International President Thomas C. Short announced that they had signed a contract with Silver Pictures covering all productions produced under the company banner. Silver Pictures is a Los Angeles based company founded by producer Joel Silver in 1980 and has produced films such as the Matrix series, Ghost Ship, both the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard series, Jumpin' Jack Flash and 48 Hours.

Silver Pictures is best known for production of feature films and said they will be employing IA members throughout the country, on a production-by-production basis. It was reported that Lyle Trachtenberg spearheaded the organizing efforts that enabled the contract to be signed. Lyle Trachtenberg and fellow union representative Steve Aredas,  together have done an amazing job and have brought a few very big shows including,  Joel Silver’s “Next Action Star” and “Performing As” which is a brand new project featuring an eight hundred-pound gorilla and which was produced by the Endemol Company.  

Marriage to Whoopi Goldberg

Lyle Trachtenberg was married to the Hollywood actress Whoopi Goldberg. She had previously been married twice; to Alvin Martin and also to David Claessen. Lyle and Whoopi dated for about nine months and finally decided to tie the knot on May 11, 1994 when they engaged. Lyle and his future wife announced their wedding plans on CNN live on the Larry King Live show. Whoopi showed off her diamond ring and told the romantic story about how they had met each other at the end of 1993. Lyle and Whoopi were on the set of Corrina, Corrina because Lyle had arrived to negotiate a labor contract. Whoopi said “Maybe there wasn’t some magical sparks in my head, but he was interesting and he got my attention”. The couple was married on October 1, 1994 in the backyard of the Pacific Palisades estate of Whoopi in front of three hundred and fifty guests.

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Whoopi looked beautiful in her white low cut wedding dress. Friends Arnold Schwarzenegger along with his wife Maria Shriver, Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole and Robin Williams were all in attendance. The USA Today newspaper reported at the time that guests at the wedding received white chocolate swans that read “Today I married my friend and you were here.” The chocolates were signed by Whoopi and Lyle. In the media world there were a lot of articles and photos including some of the new couple cutting their wedding cake. After their short ceremony the couple made an insulting expression on the roof of their house for prying reporters.

Unfortunately, their marriage was pretty short; Lyle and Whoopi divorced the next year. Later, in 2011, after three unhappy marriages behind, Whoopi said: “I guess you should be in love with the person, that you want marry. You must to be committed to them. I don't have feelings like that. I'm very close to my family. So I guess never was in love with all of my husbands. It is my ugly truth”. She later told Piers Morgan in an interview that she can no longer commit to a man and she would now focus on loving her relatives. Goldberg says her thoughts on marriage have always been the same and perfectly explained why marriage doesn’t fit her life. “I’m the round peg, and marriage is the square hole. You can’t have a square hole, can you?” she said. "I don't have that commitment. I'm committed to my family. No (I wasn't in love with my husbands). It's the truth. I wanted to feel normal and it seemed to me if I was married I'd have a much more normal life. That's not a good reason to get married. You have to actually want a life with someone through ups and downs and I discovered that wasn't for me." After his divorce with Whoopi, tabloids didn't cover much about Lyle leaving the audience to spread the false rumors about his death. After her three unsuccessful marriages, Whoopi wrote a book about the downsides of marriage. The book is titled, “If Someone Says “You Complete Me,” RUN!: Whoopi’s Big Book of Relationships.” After his very celebrated wedding and divorce with Whoopi, Lyle preferred not to speak about his personal life and did not appear on any live television chat shows.

Current

 Lyle later married former actress Adrianna Belan, who was born in Canada. The couple has two children, eldest daughter Gabriella Trachtenberg and youngest daughter Natasha Trachtenberg. The happy family of four recently attended a march organized by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Lyle’s wife Adrianna currently works as the Director of Marketing for the Timothy Cline Insurance agency. Lyle Trachtenberg has been an international union representative for the Stage & Picture Operators (IATSE) Union since 2002. His total compensation has grown steadily over the years. His initial total compensation has risen from $92,402 per annum in 2002 to $144,775 in 2015.

 Lyle Trachtenberg currently resides with his family in his native Los Angeles. His total net worth is not disclosed by any source.

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