Jonathan Demme, the Oscar-winning director behind modern classics like The Silence Of The Lambs and Philadelphia, has died, aged 73. He had been suffering from esophageal cancer, according to IndieWire. In a career spanning five decades, Demme proved a versatile and influential filmmaker, working in both fiction and documentary, and leaving many indelible moments in cinema history.
Born in Nassau County, New York in 1944, Demme’s first taste of Hollywood was under the tutelage of cult cinema producer/director Roger Corman, writing and directing several B-movies for Corman’s studio. He first earned mainstream attention in the 1980s with comedy-dramas like Melvin and Howard, Something Wild and Married To The Mob, and won huge praise for the seminal and groundbreaking Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, which New Yorker critic Pauline Kael described as “close to perfection”.
Demme’s most famous contribution to cinema came in 1991 with The Silence Of The Lambs, an adaptation of the novel by Thomas Harris which became a major critical and commercial success, and swept the ‘Big Five’ categories at the Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Demme. It remains an iconic and influential psychological thriller; a recent Empire poll named Hannibal Lecter the greatest screen villain of all time.
Demme followed that up in quick succession with Philadelphia, one of the first major films to address the HIV epidemic, which won its lead actor Tom Hanks an Oscar. Critical acclaim also flooded in for Rachel Getting Married (2008), the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and concert films for artists as diverse as Neil Young and Justin Timberlake.
He is frequently cited as an important influence on a generation of filmmakers. When asked which three directors influenced him the most, Paul Thomas Anderson once replied: “Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Demme, and Jonathan Demme.”