LOS ANGELES – Walter Mirisch, the talented Oscar-winning filmmaker who oversaw such classics as “Some Like It Hot,” “West Side Story” and “In the Heat of the Night,” has died of natural causes. Institute of Motion Studies. Photography Arts and Sciences said Saturday. He was 101.
Mirisch died Friday in Los Angeles, according to a statement from Principal Bill Kramer and Principal Janet Yang.
“Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and an industry leader,” they said, noting that he served as a high school principal and school governor for many years. “His passion for filmmaking and the Academy never wavered, and he was a dear friend and mentor. We send our love and support to his family at this difficult time.”
Mirisch won the best picture award for 1967’s “In the Heat of the Night,” and the company he and his brothers managed produced the best picture Oscars “The Apartment” and “West Side Story.”
Born eight years before the Academy Awards, 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 work and humanitarian efforts. .
As a producer, Mirisch hired great filmmakers such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison, and gave them the freedom to make their own films.
He told the Los Angeles Times in 1983: “We gave these filmmakers what they needed. “Billy would call me and say, ‘I want to make a picture about so-and-so’ – and That’s all I need to know. … We became, in fact, partners with our directors.”
His regular directorial ventures included not only Wilder and Jewison, but Blake Edwards and John Sturges. The company also produced films by John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Roy Hill and Hal Ashby.
Mirisch entered the film business as a teenager, progressing from usher to management roles with a theater chain before moving on to work in budget productions and Westerns in the late 1940s.
The company he founded in 1957 with his brother Marvin and his brother Harold is one of the best independent productions that arose from the old studio system while television was cutting to attending movies.
The Mirischs made a series of hits from the 1950s to the 1970s, among them “The Big Seven,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Big Bang,” “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” “Thomas” The Crown Affair, “The Pink Panther” and its sequel, “A Shot in the Dark.”
Their company began with a few Westerns before producing 1959’s “Some Like It Hot,” Wilder’s comedy starring Marilyn Monroe with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as costumed singers running from a mob.
Mirisch is willing to take on unusual roles. A Harvard-educated business executive, he handled the business effectively, allowing his filmmakers to focus on their films.
Elmore Leonard – co-writer and screenwriter on two Mirisch productions, 1974’s “Mr. Majestyk” and the 1987 TV movie “Desperado” – dedicated the Hollywood satire “Get Shorty” to Mirisch, calling him “one of the good guys.”
Mirisch was also among the few filmmakers Sidney Poitier acknowledged in his speech at the 2002 Academy Awards when he accepted the Oscar for lifetime achievement.
“These filmmakers persist, speaking through their art to the best of us all,” said Poitier, who starred in Mirisch’s “In the Heat of the Night” and its sequel “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!”
The Mirisch brothers adjust the way the film is handled by the film, depending on the level of supervision they feel the director wants or needs. In a 1972 interview in the magazine “Film and Movies,” Mirisch said that some directors worked well as their own producers, while others showed more interest than actually making a movie.
“We have worked with very talented directors and producers, and I must say that the relationship with each of them is different,” he said.
A team for most of their careers, the Mirisch brothers worked in theater. Before joining the Allied Artists production company in the 1940s, Walter worked as a producer and later head of production and Harold and Marvin had management roles.
While at Allied, Walter produced both Westerns and low budget titles in the series “Bomba the Jungle Boy” starring Johnny Sheffield, who played the Boy in the “Tarzan” films of the 1940s.
After his older brother, Harold, died in 1968, the surviving brothers continued the partnership with Marvin as president and Walter, the younger brother, in charge of production. Marvin died in 2002.
Walter Mirisch continued to produce theatrical films in the 1980s. Although the quality of his films and commercials have generally declined, there are still some outstanding performances, including an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award for “Find Time Next Year.” Other late-career films include “Midway,” “Grey Lady Down,” and 1979’s “Dracula.” He was also a producer on a few television projects in the 1990s.
Walter Mortimer Mirisch was born in New York City on November 8, 1921. After studying at the City College of New York, he received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1942 and a master’s degree in in business from Harvard in 1943.
In 1947, Mirisch married Patricia Kahan, who preceded him in death. They had three children, Anne, Andrew and Lawrence.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF).
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
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