LOS ANGELES — Walter Mirisch, the astute and Oscar winning film producer who oversaw such classics as “Some Like It Hot,” “West Side Story” and “In the Heat of the Night,” has died of natural causes, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Saturday. He was 101.
Mirisch died on Friday in Los Angeles, according to a statement from the academy’s CEO Bill Kramer and its president Janet Yang.
“Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and as an industry leader,” they said, noting he had served as academy president and an academy governor for many years. “His passion for filmmaking and the Academy never wavered, and he remained a dear friend and advisor. We send our love and support to his family during this difficult time.”
Mirisch received the best picture Academy Award for 1967′s “In the Heat of the Night,” and the company run by him and his brothers also produced the best-picture Oscar winners “The Apartment” and “West Side Story.”
Born eight years before the first Academy Awards ceremony, he served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1973 to 1977 and received two honorary Oscars, in 1978 and 1983, for his body of work and his humanitarian efforts.
As a producer, Mirisch aggressively recruited top filmmakers such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison, then gave them freedom to craft the movies as they saw fit.
“We offered these filmmakers what they needed,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1983. “Billy could call me up and say, `I’d next like to do a picture about so-and-so’ — and that’s all we’d need to know. … We became, in effect, partners with our directors.”
His company’s regular stable of directors included not only Wilder and Jewison, but Blake Edwards and John Sturges. The company also produced movies by John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Roy Hill and Hal Ashby.
Mirisch entered the movie business in his teens, advancing from usher to…
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