Joseph Brooks, who won an Oscar in 1977 for the song "You Light Up My Life," was found dead Sunday in his East Village apartment after an apparent suicide.
Brooks, 73, was facing trial on 82 counts of sexual abuse. He is alleged to have raped 11 young women after luring them to his residence with the pretense of auditioning them for movie roles.
It was a rather difficult fall for a man who not only wrote the tune "You Light Up My Life, which singer Debby Boone turned into a syrupy pop hit, he also wrote and directed the eponymous movie, which starred Joe Silver and Didi Cohn.
Undaunted by that film's critical panning, Brooks wrote, directed — and, despite a stammer, starred in — 1978's also-critically eviscerated "If I Ever See You Again."
Brooks was found with a plastic bag over his head, according to police, with a helium tank situated nearby that may have also played a role in his death.
To be sure, the man was troubled. According to People, in December, his estranged son, Nicholas Brooks, 24, was charged with murdering his girlfriend, a swimsuit designer, in a room at SoHo House, a private Manhattan club.
