Walter Mirisch, Oscar-winning producer, dead at 101

LOS ANGELES — Walter Mirisch, a smart and Oscar-winning movie producer who oversaw classics like “Some Like It Hot,” “West Side Story,” and “In the Heat of the Night,” died of natural causes on Saturday, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was 101.

According to a statement from the Academy’s CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang, Mirisch died on Friday in Los Angeles.

“Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and an industry leader,” they said, noting that he had previously served as academy president and governor. “His passion for filmmaking and the Academy never wavered, and he remained a dear friend and advisor. During this difficult time, we send our love and support to his family.”

Mirisch won the Academy Award for best picture for 1967′s “In the Heat of the Night,” and the company he and his brothers ran also produced best-picture Oscar winners “The Apartment” and “West Side Story.”

He was born eight years before the first Academy Awards ceremony and was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1973 to 1977. He received two honorary Oscars for his work and humanitarian efforts in 1978 and 1983.

Mirisch aggressively recruited top filmmakers such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison as producers, then gave them free rein to craft the films as they saw fit.

“We provided what these filmmakers required,” 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 effectively became partners with our directors.”

Mirisch aggressively recruited top filmmakers such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison

In addition to Wilder and Jewison, his company’s regular board of directors included Blake Edwards and John Sturges. The company also produced films by John Ford, John Huston, William Wyler, George Roy Hill, and Hal Ashby.

Mirisch began his career in the film industry as a teenager, working his way up from usher to management positions with a theatre chain before moving on to production work on low-budget action films and Westerns in the late 1940s.

His company, which he founded with his brother Marvin and half-brother Harold in 1957, was one of the most successful independent production outfits to emerge from the old studio system as television reduced movie attendance.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the Mirischs had a string of hits, including “The Magnificent Seven,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Great Escape,” “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,” “The Thomas 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,” a Wilder comedy starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis as cross-dressing musicians fleeing the mob.

Mirisch was open to trying out new projects. He was a Harvard-trained business executive who efficiently oversaw the business side of things, allowing his filmmakers to focus on their films.

Elmore Leonard, the crime novelist and screenwriter on two Mirisch productions, “Mr. Majestyk” in 1974 and “Desperado” in 1987, dedicated his Hollywood satire “Get Shorty” to Mirisch, calling him “one of the good guys.”

Mirisch was also one of a few filmmakers mentioned by Sidney Poitier in his acceptance speech for an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the 2002 Academy Awards.

Mirisch was open to trying out new projects.

“Those filmmakers persevered, speaking to the best in all of us through their art,” said Poitier, who starred in Mirisch’s “In the Heat of the Night” and the sequel “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!”

The Mirisch brothers tailored their management style to the level of oversight they felt a director desired or required. Mirisch stated in a 1972 interview in the journal “Films and Filming” that some directors worked well as their producers, while others had little interest outside the actual filmmaking.

“We’ve worked with brilliant directors and producer-directors, and I must say that our relationships with each of them have been very different,” he explained.

The Mirisch brothers worked in theatre as a team for most of their careers. Walter worked as a producer and later as head of the production before joining the Allied Artists production company in the 1940s, while Harold and Marvin worked in administration.

Walter Mirisch continued to make theatrical films until the 1980s.

While at Allied, Walter produced Westerns and a series of low-budget titles in the “Bomba the Jungle Boy” series starring Johnny Sheffield, who had played Boy in the 1940s “Tarzan” films.

Following the death of his oldest brother, Harold, in 1968, the surviving siblings carried on their business with Marvin as chairman and Walter, the youngest brother, in charge of production. Marvin passed away in 2002.

Walter Mirisch continued to make theatrical films until the 1980s. Although his films’ quality and commercial success declined in general, he did have some hits, including Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for “Same Time Next Year.” Other late-career films included “Midway,” “Gray Lady Down,” and the 1979 remake of “Dracula.” In the 1990s, he was also an executive producer on several television projects.

In New York City, Walter Mortimer Mirisch was born on November 8, 1921. After attending City College of New York, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1942 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a master’s in business in 1943 from Harvard.

Mirisch married Patricia Kahan in 1947, and she died before him. Anne, Andrew, and Lawrence were their three children.

The family has asked for donations to the Motion Picture and Television Fund instead of flowers (MPTF).

A memorial service will take place at a later date.

SOURCE – (AP)