Director Norman Jewison, known for award-winning films such as “In the Heat of the Night” (1967) and “Moonstruck” (1987), is dead. He died “peacefully” in his home on Saturday, his spokesman said. The Canadian-born man was 97 years old.
In his long career, Jewison was nominated for an Oscar seven times as a director and producer. In 1999, he received the Irving G. Thalberg Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Academy Awards.
One of his greatest Hollywood successes is the romantic comedy “Moonstruck,” which won three Oscars and earned Cher the Oscar for Best Actress in 1988. Jewison received the Berlinale Directing Prize for the romantic story about the Italian immigrant environment.
Cher bows to Norman Jewison
“Farewell, sweet prince,” wrote Cher (77) on the platform X, formerly Twitter. She thanked Jewison for “one of the greatest, happiest, funniest experiences of my life.” Jewison made “Moonstruck” a “great film.” Without him she wouldn’t have won an Oscar.
After two comedies with Doris Day in the early 1960s, Jewison ventured into more serious material. Based on the satire “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!” In 1967 he brought Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger in front of the camera for the crime thriller “In the Heat of the Night” (1967). In the thriller, which deals with the problem of racism in the USA, Poitier played a criminal expert from the north who has to assert himself against a southern sheriff (Steiger). The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture.
Impressive range: thrillers, musicals and dramas
After hit musicals such as “Anatevka” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”, Jewison then directed social dramas such as “… and Justice for All” and “Sergeant Waters – A Soldier’s Story”.
With leading actor Denzel Washington, Jewison presented the drama “The Hurricane” about the life of professional boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter at the Berlinale in 2000. The film depicts the true case of the black boxer who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1966.
Jewison brought his last film to the cinema in 2003, “The Statement”. In it, Michael Caine played a French Nazi collaborator and war criminal who, after decades, is caught up in the past.
