ObitTree Blog

Jonathan Demme

Director, Producer, Screenwriter

February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017

Academy award winning director, Jonathan Demme has passed away at the age of 73 according to his publicist and multiple reports. Demme was diagnosed and successfully treated for esophageal cancer in 2010. Unfortunately, it recurred in 2015 and complications led to Demme’s death.

Demme first rose to prominence during the 1980’s. He got his start directing the comedy films Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Something Wild (1986), and Married to the Mob (1988).

His most notable work came in 1991 when he directed The Silence of the Lambs, a film for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. Later in his career, he directed the films Philadelphia (1993) and Rachel Getting Married (2008).

Following his death, actress Jodie Foster was quoted as saying,

“I am heart-broken to lose a friend, a mentor, a guy so singular and dynamic you’d have to design a hurricane to contain him.  Jonathan was as quirky as his comedies and as deep as his dramas. He was pure energy, the unstoppable cheerleader for anyone creative.”