Curtis Hanson, who won an Oscar for LA Confidential and directed 8 Mile starring Eminem, has died.
The film-maker died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, police said. He was 71.
A host of stars paid tribute to Curtis following news of his death, including Kevin Bacon who starred in the director’s 1994 thriller The River Wild with Meryl Streep.
Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette with director Curtis Hanson in 2005 (Bernat Armangue/AP)
“So sad to hear about Curtis Hanson,” Kevin wrote on Twitter. “Great director. Great man. Riding that river with him was one of the greatest gigs of my life.”
Rob Lowe, who starred in Hanson’s 1990 thriller Bad Influence, tweeted: “It was an honour to make Bad Influence with Curtis Hanson. So smart, so kind and a great storyteller. I will miss him.”
Gremlins director Joe Dante said Curtis was a “terrific guy who made some terrific movies”, while David Simon, creator of the TV show The Wire, said he was “a worthy and talented craftsman and storyteller.”
So sad to hear about Curtis Hanson. great director. great man. Riding that river with him was one of the greatest gigs of my life
— Kevin Bacon (@kevinbacon) September 21, 2016
It was an honor to make "Bad Influence" with Curtis Hanson. So smart, so kind and a great storyteller. I will miss him.
— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) September 21, 2016
Curtis began screenwriting and directing in the early 1970s but scored his first major hit in 1992 with The Hand That Rocks The Cradle starring Rebecca De Mornay as a revenge-seeking nanny.
He won critical success directing and co-writing the 1997 film LA Confidential, for which he won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay with Brian Helgeland.
Curtis was also nominated for the best director Oscar but lost out to James Cameron, who won for Titanic.
Director Curtis Hanson (Jason DeCrow/AP)
LA Confidential introduced Russell Crowe to worldwide cinema audiences and was a career high point for many of those involved, including Kim Basinger, who also won an Oscar.
Curtis went on to direct the 2000 film Wonder Boys with Tobey Maguire and Michael Douglas, and 8 Mile in 2002 which starred Eminem in the lead role.
Curtis most recently directed the 2011 HBO movie on the financial crisis Too Big To Fail and the 2012 Gerard Butler surfing movie Chasing Mavericks.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here