Oscar-winning film producer Jeremy Thomas dies aged 77 — SkimNews
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- Jeremy Thomas, Oscar-winning British film producer, died aged 77 at his Oxfordshire home on Friday, "passed away peacefully" surrounded by family, his publicist said.
- Thomas produced Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" (1987), a biographical drama about China's last Qing emperor that won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture and earned Thomas his own Oscar.
- Over a five-decade career, Thomas collaborated with directors including David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, Nicolas Roeg, and Bertolucci, producing films such as Oshima's "Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence" (starring David Bowie), Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method," and adaptations of JG Ballard's "Crash" and "High-Rise."
- He repeatedly worked with Bertolucci on "The Sheltering Sky," "Little Buddha," "Stealing Beauty," and "The Dreamers," and helped launch the careers of British directors including Stephen Frears, Jonathan Glazer, Ben Wheatley, and David Mackenzie.
- Thomas received the European Film Academy's Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema award in 2006 and was made a CBE in the 2009 New Year Honours.
- His latest collaboration with Takashi Miike, "Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo," is due to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday, days after his death.
Why it matters: The film industry loses a producer whose career spanned arthouse landmarks and mainstream hits, with nine Academy Awards for a single film and a CBE for sustained contribution to British cinema. His final project — a Takashi Miike film premiering at TIFF just days after his passing — closes a 50-year run that helped define independent British filmmaking.
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