The US film producer and Oscar winner Walter Mirisch is dead. He died of natural causes on Friday at the age of 101, said the Oscar Academy in Beverly Hills, California.
Mirisch, who had produced numerous film classics with his brothers Marvin and Harold, was “a true visionary”, it was said. He had a great influence on the film world and on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, of which he was president for several years.
In addition to the Oscar for the Movie In the Heat of the Night (1967), starring Sidney Poitier, Mirisch also received two honors at the Academy Awards – for its “consistently high quality of filmmaking” (1978) and for its humanitarianism Work in the Film Industry (1983).
In all, the Mirisch-producing trio has released more than 60 films, including the award-winning comedy Some Like It Hot (1959), starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Legendary directors such as John Huston, Billy Wilder and John Sturges worked closely with the brothers. Also in the animated series “The Pink Panther” was Mirisch producer.
Marvin Mirisch was the businessman and mastermind behind the negotiations, while Walter Mirisch took care of the film production. His half-brother Harold Mirisch died in 1968, Marvin Mirisch in 2002.
