The American producer Walter Mirisch, known from “West Side Story” or “Some Like It Hot”, died at the age of 101, the Academy of Oscars announced on Sunday.
The Oscar winner, whose career spanned six decades and was also a past president of the academy, died in Los Angeles on Friday, February 24, 2023, the organization said in a statement.
The Academy is “deeply saddened to learn of Walter’s passing,” CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang said in the statement, praising a “true visionary.”
“He had a strong impact on the film community and the academy (…) His passion for film and the academy never waned and he remained a very dear friend and advisor,” they added.
Walter Mirisch, born November 8, 1921 in New York, received three awards from the Academy.
He received the Academy Award for Best Picture for “In the Heat of the Night” (1967), the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for the “consistently high quality of his film production” and the Jean-Hersholt.
For the Academy, Mr. Mirisch was “one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood history.”
The production company Mirisch Company, founded in 1957 with his brothers Harold and Marvin, is behind several cult films such as “Some Like It Hot” (1959), “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), “West Side Story” (1961). ), “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Pink Panther” (1963) or “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968).
His wife Patricia died in 2005 and he is survived by his three children, one grandson and two great-grandchildren.