Curtis Hanson, the Oscar-winning director behind movies including L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile and Wonder Boys, has died at the age of 71 in California.
Born Curtis Lee Hanson in 1945 in Reno, Nevada, he grew up in Los Angeles. Hanson dropped out of high school early, his passion for movies already sparked, and he found work both as a freelance photographer and as the editor for Cinema magazine.
He got his start in filmmaking itself as a writer, co-writing an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story The Dunwich Horror. That was followed by his first directorial effort, Sweet Kill in 1978. From there, a successful career was born that would straddle a variety of genres, featuring comedies such as Losin' It, thrillers including Bad Influence and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, and dramas with the likes of In Her Shoes and The River Wild.
But it is L.A. Confidential, which Hanson adapted with Brian Helgeland from James Ellroy's tale of glamour, grime and corrupt cops that he'll most be remembered for. The movie won two Oscars – one for Kim Basinger as Supporting Actress and an Adapted Screenplay trophy shared by the two writers. And that was from nine nominations.
More recently, Hanson began making surfing drama/biopic Chasing Mavericks, but had to hand the film off to Michael Apted due to his declining health. Suffering with Alzheimer's in his later years, he was found dead at his home on Tuesday afternoon.
“For me all good stories are about awareness. Self-awareness and lack of it, of how you get there and how you might fail to get there," Hanson told The Guardian in 2005. "Even Don Siegel’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is about that to a degree. People discover who they are and what they’re all about by meeting their doppelgängers. I have deliberately tried to mix it up in my movies, because I enjoy visiting different worlds. However, thematically, I find that things keep coming up. Self-examination to begin with. You know, who am I, how did I get here and how do I become a better version of myself. Self-destructiveness, because that is the beginning or negation of self-examination."