In memoriam: the filmmakers we lost in 2021
Our roll call of film figures who died in 2021, as compiled by Bob Mastrangelo
Actors
Françoise Arnoul (3 June 1931 – 20 July 2021): vivacious French actor who was in vogue in the 1950s (French Cancan; Sait-on jamais…).
Ed Asner (15 Nov 1929 – 29 Aug 2021): rose from playing heavies (El Dorado) to being one of television’s most respected actors, notably as Lou Grant, and had a late triumph as the voice of Carl in Pixar’s Up.
Jean-Pierre Bacri (24 May 1951 – 18 Jan 2021): French actor and screenwriter known for his collaborations with Agnès Jaoui (Same Old Song; The Taste of Others; Look at Me).
Ned Beatty (6 July 1937 – 13 June 2021): outstanding character actor (Deliverance; Nashville) who almost stole Network with a single scene and found a new audience as Lotso in Toy Story 3.
Jean-Paul Belmondo (9 Apr 1933 – 6 Sept 2021): actor of the nouvelle vague who became one of the defining faces of French cinema (Á bout de souffle; Léon Morin, Priest; That Man from Rio; Pierrot le fou).
Shane Briant (17 Aug 1946 – 27 May 2021): co-starred in Hammer films and later had a second career as a novelist (Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter; Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell).
Nino Castelnuovo (28 Oct 1936 – 6 Sept 2021): Italian actor whose star-making role remained his most prominent, as the lovestruck mechanic Guy in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Chen Sung-young (1 July 1941 – 17 Dec 2021): Taiwanese actor who starred in Hou’s A City of Sadness and supported Chow Yun-fat (Prison on Fire II) and Jet Li (The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk).
Chiba Shin’ichi (aka ‘Sonny’ Chiba) (22 Jan 1939 – 19 Aug 2021): Japanese action star who frequently teamed with director Fukasaku Kinji (The Street Fighter; Doberman Cop; Shogun’s Samurai).
Michael Constantine (22 May 1927 – 31 Aug 2021): character actor (The Hustler) whose best film role came relatively late, as the father in the indie sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Arlene Dahl (11 Aug 1925 – 29 Nov 2021): leading lady (Slightly Scarlet; Journey to the Center of the Earth) who also established a cosmetics and lingerie company and wrote on beauty and astrology.
Nathalie Delon (1 Aug 1941 – 21 Jan 2021): French actor who made her debut opposite then-husband Alain in Le Samouraï and later directed They Call It an Accident.
DMX (aka Earl Simmons) (18 Dec 1970 – 9 Apr 2021): chart-topping rapper and occasional film actor (Romeo Must Die; Exit Wounds).
Olympia Dukakis (20 June 1931 – 1 May 2021): achieved sudden film success in her 50s as Rose in Moonstruck, which moved her to the top tier of character actors (Steel Magnolias).
Vicente Fernández (17 Feb 1940 – 12 Dec 2021): singer who was an icon of ranchera music and a popular star of Mexican films (Tacos al carbón; La Ley del monte).
Verónica Forqué (1 Dec 1955 – 13 Dec 2021): actor who won four Goya Awards and was known internationally for her work with Almodóvar (What Have I Done to Deserve This?; Kika).
Luminita Gheorghiu (1 Sept 1949 – 4 July 2021): actor who had prominent roles in the Romanian New Wave (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu; Child’s Pose).
Leon Greene (15 July 1931 – 19 June 2021): opera singer who turned to acting, playing supporting parts (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; The Devil Rides Out).
Charles Grodin (21 Apr 1935 – 18 May 2021): actor whose deadpan delivery and brilliant timing made him a welcome presence in any comedy (The Heartbreak Kid; Heaven Can Wait; Midnight Run).
David Gulpilil (1 July 1953 – 29 Nov 2021): Indigenous Australian actor who was a trailblazer in Australian cinema for over forty years (Walkabout; The Last Wave; Charlie’s Country).
Paulo Gustavo (30 Oct 1978 – 4 May 2021): comic actor and writer who had one of Brazilian cinema’s biggest box-office smashes with My Mother Is a Character and its two sequels.
Haya Harareet (20 Sept 1931 – 3 Feb 2021): Israeli actress (Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer) who played Esther in 1959’s Ben-Hur and also worked in Britain, including co-writing Our Mother’s House.
Jack Hedley (28 Oct 1929 – 11 Dec 2021): long-time TV actor (Colditz) whose busiest period in films was the 1960s (The Scarlet Blade; The Anniversary).
Pat Hitchcock (7 July 1928 – 9 Aug 2021): played supporting roles in a few of her father Alfred’s films (Strangers on a Train) and co-wrote a biography of her mother, Alma Reville.
Hal Holbrook (17 Feb 1925 – 23 Jan 2021): played Mark Twain on stage for over 60 years and a rich menagerie of characters on film (All the President’s Men; The Fog; Into the Wild).
Sally Ann Howes (20 July 1930 – 19 Dec 2021): musical theatre star who came to films in the 1940s (Thursday’s Child; Dead of Night) and had her most famous role as Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Tommy Kirk (10 Dec 1941 – 28 Sept 2021): actor who was Disney’s key performer for teen and young adult roles in the late 1950s and early 60s (Old Yeller; The Shaggy Dog).
Yaphet Kotto (15 Nov 1939 – 15 Mar 2021): powerful actor who was equally effective whether playing cops, workingclass stiffs or a Bond villain (Live and Let Die; Blue Collar; Alien; Midnight Run).
Dilip Kumar (11 Dec 1922 – 7 July 2021): superstar of Hindi cinema who was credited with introducing a more Method-influence acting style to the screen (Devdas; Mughal-e-Azam).
Cloris Leachman (30 Apr 1926 – 27 Jan 2021): stole the opening scenes in Kiss Me Deadly, won an Oscar for The Last Picture Show and was unforgettable as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein.
Gunnel Lindblom (18 Dec 1931 – 24 Jan 2021): actor who stood out in Bergman’s stock company (The Virgin Spring; The Silence) and also made her mark as a director (Summer Paradise).
Norman Lloyd (8 Nov 1914 – 11 May 2021): character actor who fell from the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur, produced and directed for Hitchcock’s TV series and was a front-row eyewitness to showbiz history over an 80-year career.
Zygmunt Malanowicz (4 Feb 1938 – 4 Apr 2021): Polish actor whose best film role was his first, as the young hitchhiker at the centre of Knife in the Water.
Helen McCrory (17 Aug 1968 – 16 Apr 2021): commanding actor who was Cherie Blair in The Queen, Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter films and Polly Gray on TV’s Peaky Blinders.
Alfonso Mejía (16 Nov 1934 – 29 Dec 2021): Mexican actor known for playing Pedro, the teenaged protagonist in Buñuel’s Los Olvidados.
Kaycee Moore (24 Feb 1944 – 13 Aug 2021): actor known for her performances in three classics of African-American independent cinema (Killer of Sheep; Bless Their Little Hearts; Daughters of the Dust).
Nakamura Kichiemon (22 May 1944 – 28 Nov 2021): celebrated Japanese kabuki actor whose rare film credits include lead roles for Shindo Kaneto (Kuroneko) and Shinoda Masahiro (Double Suicide).
Michael Nesmith (30 Dec 1942 – 10 Dec 2021): actor, singer, songwriter and musician with the Monkees, including the cult film Head, who was also an early pioneer of music videos and produced films (Repo Man).
Ng Man-tat (2 Jan 1951 – 27 Feb 2021): leading supporting actor of Hong Kong cinema and a frequent comic sidekick to Stephen Chow (A Moment of Romance; Shaolin Soccer).
Nicola Pagett (15 June 1945 – 3 Mar 2021): actor in occasional films (Operation Daybreak; Privates on Parade) who often found better roles on stage and TV (Upstairs, Downstairs).
Ronald Pickup (7 June 1940 – 24 Feb 2021): stage and TV veteran who was a memorable, if infrequent, presence in films (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Darkest Hour).
Christopher Plummer (13 Dec 1929 – 5 Feb 2021): theatre giant who had early success on film with The Sound of Music and then enjoyed an extraordinary late-career revival (The Insider; Beginners).
Jane Powell (1 Apr 1929 – 16 Sept 2021): wholesome star of musicals who was headlining films while still in her teens (Royal Wedding; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers).
Puneeth Rajkumar (17 Mar 1975 – 29 Oct 2021): leading star of India’s Kannadalanguage cinema (Appu; Arasu).
John Richardson (19 Jan 1934 – 5 Jan 2021): leading man who had his biggest hits with Hammer (She; One Million Years B.C.) and frequently worked in Italy, memorably in Black Sunday.
Tanya Roberts (15 Oct 1955 – 4 Jan 2021): actor who was one of TV’s Charlie’s Angels, then played the title role in the cult film Sheena and was a ‘Bond girl’ in A View to a Kill.
Antonio Sabàto (2 Apr 1943 – 6 Jan 2021): starred in spaghetti westerns and crime pictures (One Dollar Too Many; Gang War in Milan) and was the Italian racer in Grand Prix.
Libuše Šafránková (7 June 1953 – 9 June 2021): Czech actor who starred in international hits (Kolya) but was known at home for playing the title role in Three Wishes for Cinderella.
Sakamoto Sumiko (25 Nov 1936 – 23 Jan 2021): Japanese singer and actor familiar for her performances in the films of Imamura Shōhei (The Pornographers; The Ballad of Narayama).
Jacqueline Sassard (13 March 1940 – 17 July 2021): French star of Italian films (Guendalina) who also had leading roles for Losey (Accident) and Chabrol (Les Biches).
Renato Scarpa (14 Sept 1939 – 30 Dec 2021): Italian character actor, busy in films since the late 1960s (Don’t Look Now; I’m Starting from Three; We Have a Pope).
George Segal (13 Feb 1934 – 23 Mar 2021): made his initial impact in dramatic roles but increasingly moved to comedy (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Blume in Love; A Touch of Class; California Split).
Dean Shek (17 June 1950 – 31 Oct 2021): supporting actor of Hong Kong cinema who also co-founded the influential production company Cinema City (Drunken Master; A Better Tomorrow II).
Barbara Shelley (13 Feb 1932 – 4 Jan 2021): Britain’s reigning queen of horror, starting in the late 1950s, for Hammer (The Gorgon; Dracula: Prince of Darkness) and other studios (Village of the Damned).
Antony Sher (14 June 1949 – 2 Dec 2021): distinguished stage actor whose screen roles include the psychiatrist in The Young Poisoner’s Handbook and Disraeli in Mrs. Brown.
William Smith (24 Mar 1933 – 5 July 2021): muscular actor who had epic fistfights with Rod Taylor (Darker than Amber) and Clint Eastwood (Any Which Way You Can).
Jean-François Stévenin (23 Apr 1944 – 27 July 2021): worked steadily in French cinema for more than 50 years (Small Change; Leconte’s The Man on the Train) and also directed (Passe montagne).
Martha Stewart (7 Oct 1922 – 17 Feb 2021): post-war starlet who supported Joan Crawford in Daisy Kenyon and played the murdered hat-check girl in In a Lonely Place.
Dean Stockwell (5 Mar 1936 – 7 Nov 2021): child star who successfully navigated the tricky path to adult roles (The Boy with Green Hair; Long Day’s Journey into Night; Blue Velvet; Married to the Mob).
Tanaka Kunie (23 Nov 1932 – 24 Mar 2021): character actor who was a staple of Japanese cinema for 50 years (The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity; A Class to Remember).
Mari Töröcsik (23 Nov 1935 – 16 Apr 2021): Hungarian star who won best actress at Cannes for Mrs. Dhery, Where Are You? and was a favourite of Zoltán Fábri (Merry-GoRound) and Károly Makk (Love).
Cicely Tyson (19 Dec 1924 – 28 Jan 2021): repeatedly defied racial stereotyping through a series of powerful performances (Sounder; The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman; Fried Green Tomatoes).
Nikki van der Zyl (27 Apr 1935 – 6 March 2021): carved out a singular career in British films as a voice dubber, notably on most of the Bond films of the 1960s and 70s, including for Ursula Andress and Claudine Auger.
Isela Vega (5 Nov 1939 – 9 Mar 2021): actor who brought a rebellious persona to Mexican cinema (La viuda negra) and played Elita in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
Jessica Walter (31 Jan 1941 – 24 Mar 2021): played one of the friends at the centre of The Group and was the stalker in Play Misty for Me before having a more sustained career on TV.
Joan Weldon (5 Aug 1930 – 11 Feb 2021): actor of the 1950s whose most memorable role was as a scientist battling giant ants in Them!
Betty White (17 Jan 1922 – 31 Dec 2021): beloved comic actor whose career spanned the history of TV (The Golden Girls) and included roles in such films as Advise & Consent and The Proposal.
Cara Williams (29 June 1925 – 9 Dec 2021): star of early TV (Pete and Gladys) who earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in The Defiant Ones.
Clarence Williams III (21 Aug 1939 – 4 June 2021): star of TV’s The Mod Squad who re-emerged in the 1980s as a character actor (Purple Rain; Deep Cover).
Michael K. Williams (22 Nov 1966 – 6 Sept 2021): created one of TV’s great characters in Omar Little for The Wire, and had supporting roles on film (12 Years a Slave; Inherent Vice).
Jane Withers (12 Apr 1926 – 7 Aug 2021): energetic child star of the 30s who relished playing troublemakers and later moved into character parts (Bright Eyes; The Holy Terror; Giant).
Samuel E. Wright (20 Nov 1948 – 24 May 2021): played Dizzy Gillespie in Eastwood’s Bird and Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid, for which he sang ‘Under the Sea’.
Saadi Yacef (20 Jan 1928 – 10 Sept 2021): Algerian liberation fighter who produced the film The Battle of Algiers and played one of its lead roles.
Animation
David H. DePatie (24 Dec 1929 – 23 Sept 2021): prolific producer of cartoons with partner Friz Freleng, notably the Oscar-winning Pink Panther shorts.
Jacques Drouin (28 May 1943 – 28 Aug 2021): Canadian animator and director who was a major practitioner of pinscreen animation (Mindscape; Imprints).
Marcell Jankovics (21 Oct 1941 – 29 May 2021): animation filmmaker who made Hungary’s first animated feature (Johnny Corncob) and was also lauded for his second feature (Son of the White Mare).
Ōtsuka Yasuo (11 July 1931 – 15 Mar 2021): major Japanese animator who was also a mentor to Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao (Little Norse Prince; The Castle of Cagliostro).
Ruthie Tompson (22 July 1910 – 10 Oct 2021): Disney employee who worked in various capacities, from animation checker to scene planner, on almost every feature from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Rescuers.
Yamamoto Eiichi (22 Nov 1940 – 7 Sept 2021): anime master whose work of psychedelic erotica has been rediscovered in recent years (A Thousand and One Nights; Belladonna of Sadness).
Cinematographers
Jack Couffer (7 Dec 1924 – 30 July 2021): cinematographer and director (Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Living Free) whose credits often reflected his early years on Disney’s True-Life Adventure wildlife films.
John Hora (16 Feb 1940 – 9 Feb 2021): cinematographer who brought to life Joe Dante’s fanciful work, often stuffing the films with stylish visual in-jokes (The Howling; Gremlins; Matinee).
Halyna Hutchins (1979 – 21 Oct 2021): up-and-coming cinematographer (Archenemy) whose death sparked a debate over gun safety on film sets.
Judy Irola (23 Nov 1943 – 21 Feb 2021): director of photography (Northern Lights; Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls) who was just the third female member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
Dan Kneece (13 Sept 1956 – 7 Aug 2021): camera operator who was one of Hollywood’s premier Steadicam experts (Scream; Jackie Brown; Mulholland Drive).
Willy Kurant (15 Feb 1934 – 1 May 2021): Belgian cinematographer who shot films for Godard (Masculin féminin), Pialat (Under the Sun of Satan) and Welles (The Immortal Story).
Giuseppe Rotunno (19 Mar 1923 – 7 Feb 2021): Italian DP whose sumptuous style made him an ideal collaborator of Visconti and Fellini and also worked with De Sica, Wertmuller and Fosse, among many others.
Ian Wilson (23 Apr 1939 – 20 Jan 2021): cinematographer whose credits grew in prominence beginning in the 1980s (Wish You Were Here; The Crying Game; Douglas McGrath’s Emma).
Composers & musicians
Vanraj Bhatia (31 May 1927 – 7 May 2021): composer who was associated with India’s Parallel Cinema movement, especially his scores for Shyam Benegal (Manthan; Bhumika).
Leslie Bricusse (29 Jan 1931 – 19 Oct 2021): composer whose work includes the title tune to Goldfinger, ‘Talk to the Animals’ for Doctor Dolittle and the soundtrack to the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Joanna Bruzdowicz (17 May 1943 – 3 Nov 2021): Polish-French composer who was a longtime collaborator of Agnès Varda (Vagabond; The Gleaners and I).
Luis de Pablo (28 Jan 1930 – 10 Oct 2021): classical composer with Spain’s Generación del 51 who also scored films for Carlos Saura (The Hunt) and Victor Eríce (The Spirit of the Beehive). [Tom Whittaker pays tribute in our December 2021 issue.]
Kikuchi Shunsuke (1 Nov 1931 – 24 Apr 2021): composer for Japanese genre pictures (Gamera movies; Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion) who also created the music for the anime TV series Dragon Ball.
Shravan Rathod (13 Nov 1954 – 22 Apr 2021): composer who, as one-half of the duo Nadeem-Shravan, was a dominant force in Bollywood in the 1990s (Aashiqui; Raja Hindustani).
Stephen Sondheim (22 Mar 1930 – 26 Nov 2021): theatre legend whose musicals were often adapted to film and whose own film work includes scoring Stavinsky and Reds and winning an Oscar for Beatty’s Dick Tracy.
Mikis Theodorakis (29 July 1925 – 2 Sept 2021): celebrated composer who was perhaps as well-known for his political activism as he was for his music (Zorba the Greek; Z; Serpico).
Costume designers
Anthony Powell (2 June 1935 – 16 Apr 2021): costume designer who won three Oscars (Travels with My Aunt; Death on the Nile; Tess) and turned Dustin Hoffman into Captain Hook and Glenn Close into Cruella de Vil. [Joanna Johnston remembers Powell in our Winter 2021-22 issue.]
Wada Emi (18 Mar 1937 – 13 Nov 2021): acclaimed Japanese costume designer who also worked on international productions (Kurosawa’s Ran; 8½ Women; House of Flying Daggers).
Directors
Borhane Alaouié (1 Apr 1941 – 9 Sept 2021): director who was a pioneer of Lebanese cinema (The Massacre of Kafr Kassem; Beirut, the Encounter).
Michael Apted (10 Feb 1941 – 7 Jan 2021): director of great versatility who was especially celebrated for the long-running Up documentary series (The Triple Echo; Coal Miner’s Daughter).
Sumitra Bhave (12 Jan 1943 – 19 Apr 2021): director of Marathi-language films who explored social issues in India, typically in collaboration with Sunil Sukthankar (Doghi; Devrai).
Kevin Billington (12 June 1934 – 13 Dec 2021): directed award-winning TV documentaries (Matador) then moved into features (Interlude; The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer).
George Butler (12 Oct 1943 – 21 Oct 2021): documentarian who chronicled competitive bodybuilding and Antarctic exploration (Pumping Iron; The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition).
Mario Camus (20 Apr 1935 – 18 Sept 2021): writer-director who was mentored by Carlos Saura and came out of the New Spanish Cinema era (La Colmena; The Holy Innocents).
Steve Carver (5 Apr 1945 – 8 Jan 2021): director of action pictures who started his career with Roger Corman (Big Bad Mama; Lone Wolf McQuade).
Óscar Catacora (18 Aug 1987 – 26 Nov 2021): promising Peruvian filmmaker of Wiñaypacha, the first Aymara-language feature.
Felipe Cazals (28 July 1937 – 16 Oct 2021): director of politically engaged films who was at the centre of Mexican cinema’s revival in the 1970s (Canoa: A Shameful Memory; The Year of the Plague).
Buddhadeb Dasgupta (11 Feb 1944 – 10 June 2021): Bengali filmmaker (Bagh Bahadur; Charachar) who won the best director prize at Venice for Uttara.
Desmond Davis (24 May 1926 – 3 July 2021): camera operator turned director whose work includes the sensitive drama Girl with Green Eyes and the Ray Harryhausen fantasy Clash of the Titans.
Richard Donner (24 Apr 1930 – 5 July 2021): director with a box-office golden touch who launched three movie franchises (The Omen; Superman; Lethal Weapon).
Robert Downey Sr (24 June 1936 – 7 July 2021): maverick filmmaker who was a major voice of underground cinema in the 1960s and early 70s (Chafed Elbows; Putney Swope; Greaser’s Palace).
Ian Dunlop (1927 – Sept 2021): documentarian whose ethnographic films on Australia’s Indigenous people are considered landmarks (People of the Australian Western Desert; The Yirrkala Film Project).
Graeme Ferguson (7 Oct 1929 – 8 May 2021): Canadian filmmaker who co-invented Imax and was its long-serving president and principal artistic voice (North of Superior; The Dream Is Alive).
Peter Fleischmann (26 July 1937 – 11 Aug 2021): filmmaker who was prominent during the New German Cinema era (Hunting Scenes from Bavaria; The Hamburg Syndrome).
Leon Gast (30 Mar 1936 – 8 Mar 2021): documentarian whose best-known work, When We Were Kings, took over 20 years of financial battles before being released to great acclaim.
Monte Hellman (12 July 1929 – 20 Apr 2021): director who, despite his sparse output, had a great influence on other filmmakers (Ride in the Whirlwind; The Shooting; Two-Lane Blacktop).
Ringan Ledwidge (24 May 1971 – 8 Nov 2021): director of commercials whose work possessed a cinematic style and earned him acclaim beyond the advertising world (After Hours Athlete; 2012’s Three Little Pigs).
Vesna Ljubić (25 May 1938 – 5 Apr 2021): pioneer of Bosnian cinema as the country’s first female director of feature films (Defiant Delta; Ecce Homo).
Cecilia Mangini (31 July 1927 – 21 Jan 2021): Italian director of politically engaged documentaries, often on controversial subjects (Unknown to the City; Being Women; Two Forgotten Boxes).
Vladimir Menshov (17 Sept 1939 – 5 July 2021): Russian filmmaker who scored a popular success with Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears but was busier as an actor (Night Watch).
Roger Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 Sept 2021): director who could handle literary adaptations (Persuasion), romcoms (Notting Hill) and contemporary dramas (Venus).
Clare Peploe (20 Oct 1941 – 24 June 2021): director (High Season) who also co-wrote scripts for Antonioni (Zabriskie Point) and her husband, Bernardo Bertolucci (Besieged).
Enrique Pineda Barnet (28 Oct 1933 – 12 Jan 2021): Cuban filmmaker whose work ranged from the experimental Cosmorama to the musical La bella del Alhambra and who also co-wrote I Am Cuba.
Barney Platts-Mills (15 Oct 1944 – 5 Oct 2021): writer-director whose independent films, though critically admired, often struggled to find funding and distribution (Bronco Bullfrog; Private Road). [Philip Kemp pays tribute in our Winter 2021-22 issue.]
Wakefield Poole (24 Feb 1936 – 27 Oct 2021): director whose debut feature Boys in the Sand helped establish the gay porn industry and is considered a landmark of queer cinema.
Richard Rush (15 Apr 1929 – 8 Apr 2021): directed low-budget pictures in the 1960s (Psych-Out) and later had hits with Freebie and the Bean and The Stunt Man.
Menelik Shabazz (30 May 1954 – 28 June 2021): pathbreaker for Black British filmmakers whose own work reflected his background in activism (Burning an Illusion; Blood Ah Goh Run; The Story of Lovers Rock).
Sergei Solovyov (25 Aug 1944-13 Dec 2021): Russian filmmaker who won best director at Berlin for One Hundred Days after Childhood and created one of the defining films of the Perestroika era with Assa.
Juan Carlos Tabío (3 Sept 1943 – 18 Jan 2021): Cuban director of comedies (Plaff! or Too Afraid of Life) who collaborated with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea on the international hit Strawberry and Chocolate.
Bertrand Tavernier (25 Apr 1941 – 25 Mar 2021): filmmaker (The Watchmaker of St. Paul; A Sunday in the Country; ’Round Midnight) who also explored his lifelong love of cinema through books, essays and documentaries.
Moufida Tlatli (4 Aug 1942 – 7 Feb 2021): Tunisian director, writer and editor who was a pioneer among Arab women filmmakers (The Silences of the Palace; The Season of Men). [Rym Ouartsi pays tribute in our Winter 2021-22 issue.]
Jean-Marc Vallée (9 Mar 1963 – 26 Dec 2021): Canadian director whose films were frequent awards contenders (C.R.A.Z.Y.; The Young Victoria; Dallas Buyers Club).
Melvin Van Peebles (21 Aug 1932 – 21 Sept 2021): filmmaker who was a revolutionary figure in Black independent cinema (The Story of a Three-Day Pass; Watermelon Man; Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song). [Alex Ramon pays tribute in our Winter 2021-22 issue.]
Norman J. Warren (25 June 1942 – 11 Mar 2021): director whose outrageous, shoestring-budget horror films inspired a loyal cult following (Satan’s Slave; 1978’s Terror; Inseminoid).
Lina Wertmüller (14 Aug 1928-9 Dec 2021): provocative art-house phenomenon of the 1970s who was the first woman nominated for a best director Oscar (The Seduction of Mimi; Swept Away; Seven Beauties).
Editors
Jon Gregory (21 May 1944 – 9 Sept 2021): film editor on Four Weddings and a Funeral, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and seven features for Mike Leigh, from High Hopes to Peterloo.
Robert C. Jones (30 Mar 1936 – 1 Feb 2021): film editor (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner; Bound for Glory) who also won an Oscar for his first screenwriting effort (Coming Home).
Producers & executives
John Cornell (2 Mar 1941 – 23 July 2021): collaborator with Paul Hogan who produced and co-wrote the global sensation Crocodile Dundee, then directed the inevitable Crocodile Dundee II.
Alberto Grimaldi (28 Mar 1925 – 23 Jan 2021): Italian producer of box-office smashes who also battled the censors (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Fellini Satyricon; Last Tango in Paris).
Romaine Hart (14 June 1933 – 28 Dec 2021): exhibitor who founded and ran the Screen cinema chain, most famously Islington’s Screen on the Green, and also distributed films through her company Mainline Pictures.
Jerome Hellman (4 Sept 1928 – 26 May 2021): producer with a sparse but high-profile filmography (Midnight Cowboy; The Day of the Locust; Coming Home).
Lee Choon-yun (21 Oct 1951 – 11 May 2021): producer who was a significant figure in the revival of South Korean cinema in the 1990s (Whispering Corridors; Art Museum by the Zoo).
Lee Tae-won (1938 – 24 Oct 2021): South Korean producer who collaborated with director Im Kwon-taek on almost a dozen films (Sopyonje; Chunhyang; Chi-hwa-seon).
Marcia Nasatir (8 May 1926 – 3 Aug 2021): executive who was the first female vice president of a major Hollywood studio and played an important role in United Artists’s success in the 1970s. [Christina Newland pays tribute in our Winter 2021-22 issue.]
Denis O’Brien (12 Sept 1941 – 3 Dec 2021): founded and ran HandMade Films with George Harrison until the partnership dissolved in lawsuits (Monty Python’s Life of Brian; Withnail & I).
Denis O’Dell (1923 – 30 Dec 2021): producer often on projects with Richard Lester and the Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night; Magical Mystery Tour; Robin and Marian).
Diane Weyermann (22 Sept 1955 – 14 Oct 2021): producer who, as a top executive with Participant Media, was a fierce advocate for documentaries on social issues (An Inconvenient Truth; Citizenfour).
Zhang Zhao (c.1963 – 3 Feb 2021): executive and producer who was a major player in China’s film industry and was closely associated with Zhang Yimou (The Great Wall; 2018’s Shadow).
Screenwriters
Bob Baker (26 July 1939 – 3 Nov 2021): veteran TV writer (Doctor Who) who also co-wrote three Wallace & Gromit shorts and their feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Walter Bernstein (20 Aug 1919 – 23 Jan 2021): writer of such acclaimed films as Fail-Safe and The Front, the latter drawing on his experiences as a survivor of the Hollywood blacklist.
Jean-Claude Carrière (17 Sept 1931 – 8 Feb 2021): one of the most important and prolific screenwriters of his generation (The Tin Drum; The Unbearable Lightness of Being; Cyrano de Bergerac) who was especially renowned for his work with Buñuel. [David Thompson pays tribute in our Winter 2021-22 issue.]
Joan Didion (5 Dec 1934 – 23 Dec 2021): journalist, essayist, novelist and screenwriter, the latter in collaboration with her husband John Gregory Dunne (The Panic in Needle Park; 1976’s A Star Is Born).
Larry McMurtry (3 June 1936 – 25 Mar 2021): much filmed novelist whose screenplays include adaptations of his own work (The Last Picture Show) and others’ (Brokeback Mountain).
Narusawa Masashige (29 Jan 1925 – 13 Feb 2021): scriptwriter on Mizoguchi’s later films (Shin heike monogatari; Street of Shame) as well as works for Toyoda Shirō and Fukasaku Kinji.
Sound & special effects
Richard Conway (15 Jan 1942 – 22 Dec 2021): special effects artist who started with Gerry Anderson and contributed to such films as Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Danny Boyle’s Sunshine.
Giannetto De Rossi (8 Aug 1942 – 11 Apr 2021): Italian make-up artist who worked with Leone, Bertolucci and Fellini but made his name creating gory effects for Lucio Fulci (Zombi 2; The Beyond).
Les Fresholtz (21 Dec 1931 – Mar 2021): sound mixer who amassed over 100 credits and a dozen Oscar nominations, winning for All the President’s Men and Bird.
Alan Robert Murray (30 July 1954 – 24 Feb 2021): leading sound editor whose credits include Fatal Attraction, Joker and more than 30 films for Clint Eastwood, starting with Bronco Billy.
Marc Pilcher (5 Dec 1967 – 3 Oct 2021): hairstylist and make-up artist (2017’s Beauty and the Beast; Mary Queen of Scots) who was also acclaimed for his work on TV’s Bridgerton.
Walter ‘Wally’ Schneiderman (27 Aug 1922 – 8 Apr 2021): make-up artist who helped turn John Hurt into John Merrick for The Elephant Man and Robert Downey Jr into Charlie Chaplin.
Stuntpeople
Brad Allan (14 Feb 1973 – 7 Aug 2021): Australian stuntman, stunt coordinator, fight choreographer, second unit director and protégé of Jackie Chan (Gorgeous; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings).
Rémy Julienne (17 Apr 1930 – 21 Jan 2021): French stunt driver and coordinator who created the chase with the Mini Coopers in Peter Collinson’s The Italian Job and worked on six Bond pictures.
Doug Robinson (8 Feb 1930 – 16 Dec 2021): prolific stunt performer and small-part actor who was an Argonaut in Jason and the Argonauts, worked on multiple Bond pictures over the decades and, along with brother Joe, taught Honor Blackman judo for TV’s The Avengers.
Roy Scammell (28 July 1932 – 15 May 2021): stuntman and actor known for his ability to perform spectacular falls (A Clockwork Orange; Papillon).
Buddy Van Horn (20 Aug 1928 – 11 May 2021): long-time associate of Clint Eastwood as stunt double, stunt coordinator, actor and occasional director (High Plains Drifter; The Dead Pool).
Miscellaneous
Giannalberto Bendazzi (17 July 1946 – 13 Dec 2021): Italian historian who chronicled international animation through his books Cartoons: One Hundred Years of Cinema Animation and the three-volume Animation: A World History.
Raymond Cauchetier (10 Jan 1920 – 22 Feb 2021): French photographer who spent a decade shooting the directors and stars of the nouvelle vague, creating many of the movement’s defining still images.
Dimitri Eipides (c.1938 – 6 Jan 2021): festival director and programmer who played an influential role in the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and Montréal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma.
bell hooks (25 Sept 1952 – 15 Dec 2021): feminist author and activist who also brought her singular voice to film criticism, including essays for Sight and Sound and the book Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at the Movies.
Kevin Jackson (3 Jan 1955 – 10 May 2021): wide-ranging and widely admired cultural critic whose film writings include books on Humphrey Jennings, Withnail & I and Lawrence of Arabia.
Charles ‘Jerry’ Juroe (19 Sept 1923 – 30 Sept 2021): publicist and marketing chief whose association with the James Bond franchise spanned from Dr. No to Licence to Kill.
Enzo Sciotti (24 Sept 1944 – 11 Apr 2021): illustrator who was a major figure of Italian poster art and was especially known for his work on horror films (The Beyond; Army of Darkness).
Eva Sereny (19 May 1935 – 25 May 2021): still photographer renowned for her many candid on-set shots of movie stars and who won a Bafta for directing the short film The Dress.
Anthony Smith (14 Mar 1938 – 28 Nov 2021): broadcaster and educator who served an influential tenure as director of the BFI (1979-1988) and helped establish London’s Museum of the Moving Image.
Lynn Stalmaster (17 Nov 1927 – 12 Feb 2021): the king of Hollywood casting directors who was the first of his profession to receive an Oscar (Jewison’s The Thomas Crown Affair; Donner’s Superman).
Joan Washington (21 Dec 1946 – 2 Sept 2021): dialect coach who had her first credit on Yentl and over the years guided Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone and many others.
Colin Young (5 April 1927 – 27 Nov 2021): educator who was the founding director of the National Film and Television School, serving from 1971 to 1992.
Gene Youngblood (30 May 1942 – 6 Apr 2021): media arts theorist who was an early advocate for considering video and computer art as extensions of the cinema through his book Expanded Cinema.