Curtis Hanson, the director of “8 Mile” and “L.A. Confidential,” among other films, died Tuesday at his Hollywood Hills home, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Police Department told TheWrap. He was 71.
Police arrived at Hanson’s residence shortly before 5 p.m. PT and determined that he had died of natural causes, the spokesperson said.
A producer and screenwriter as well as a director, Hanson won an Oscar in 1997 for Best Adapted Screenplay for the neo-noir crime film “L.A. Confidential.”
Hanson’s other movies included 1992’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and the 2000 film “Wonder Boys.”
Born in 1945 in Reno, Nevada, Hanson worked as a photographer and editor for “Cinema” before turning to film, co-writing the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation “The Dunwich Horror” in 1970.
The 1973 feature “Sweet Kill” followed, and in 1978 Hanson wrote and produced the Elliott Gould/Christopher Plummer film “The Silent Partner.”
Hanson found commercial and critical success in the 1990s thanks to films such as “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and “L.A. Confidential,” which was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film, starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kim Basinger, ultimately won two Oscars.
Hanson’s later movies included 2011’s “Too Big to Fail,” based on the Andrew Ross Sorkin book of the same name about the financial crisis of the late 2000s. The film, aired by HBO, boasted a cast that included William Hurt, James Woods and Paul Giamatti.
Hanson’s final film was the 2012 autobiographical surfing drama “Chasing Mavericks,” which he was forced to bow out of late in production due to due to complications from a recent heart surgery. Michael Apted stepped in to complete work on the movie.