Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas dies at 77 in Oxfordshire

Jeremy Thomas, the British film producer behind The Last Emperor and Sexy Beast, has died aged 77 at his home in Oxfordshire on Friday, his publicist said in a statement. Thomas won the producer Oscar in 1988 for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, which took nine Academy Awards including best picture.

Who was Jeremy Thomas?

Thomas built an international reputation over a career spanning five decades, working with directors including David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, Julien Temple and Nicolas Roeg. He started out as a film editor and took his first production role on the 1976 Australian film Mad Dog Morgan, going on to back independent films alongside mainstream successes.

How did Jeremy Thomas die?

His publicist said in a statement that Thomas “passed away peacefully” surrounded by family and loved ones at his home in Oxfordshire on Friday. Thomas was London-based and worked repeatedly with Bertolucci, producing The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers.

What films did Jeremy Thomas produce?

The Last Emperor was a biographical drama about the last monarch of China’s Qing dynasty, starring Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole and Vivian Wu. Thomas’s other credits included Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, starring David Bowie, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing and Eureka, Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio, Fast Food Nation and adaptations of the JG Ballard novels Crash and High-Rise.

Sexy Beast was among the films Thomas produced. He also produced The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and The Hit, and worked with British directors early in their careers, among them Ben Wheatley, Jonathan Glazer, Stephen Frears and David Mackenzie.

What awards and honours did Jeremy Thomas receive?

Thomas was a former chairman of the British Film Institute and won a Bafta for outstanding British contribution to cinema in 1990. He received the European Film Academy’s award for outstanding European achievement in world cinema in 2006 and was made a CBE in the New Year Honours in 2009.

Elsewhere in British cultural institutions, Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum is returning 39 Naga ancestral remains.

In the art world, four paintings were stolen from the Renoir Museum in a five-minute raid.

What was Jeremy Thomas’s latest film?

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, Thomas’s latest collaboration with the Japanese director Takashi Miike, is due to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday.

Frequently asked questions

How old was Jeremy Thomas and where did he die?

Jeremy Thomas was 77 when he died at his home in Oxfordshire on Friday, according to a statement from his publicist.

Which film won Jeremy Thomas an Oscar?

Thomas won the Academy Award as producer of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor in 1988. The film won nine Oscars in total, including best picture.

What was Jeremy Thomas’s most recent film?

His latest collaboration with the Japanese director Takashi Miike, Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, is due to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday.

Which directors did Jeremy Thomas work with?

Thomas worked with Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, Nicolas Roeg, Julien Temple and Takashi Miike, and backed British directors including Ben Wheatley, Jonathan Glazer, Stephen Frears and David Mackenzie early in their careers.

With reporting from BBC News.

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