L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson dies at 71

L.A. Confidential (1997)

The Oscar-winning Hollywood writer and director Curtis Hanson has died at the age of 71.

He won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for the 1997 neo-noir L.A. Confidential, which he also produced and directed, based on the novel by James Ellroy. Kevin Spacey, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger starred in this widely acclaimed look at the underside of Los Angeles in the 1950s, which Hanson co-wrote with Brian Helgeland.

Hanson had already gathered a reputation for efficient and memorable thrillers, including The Bedroom Window (1987), the nanny revenge drama The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and the whitewater rafting actioner The River Wild (1994) starring Meryl Streep.

He later directed the campus drama Wonder Boys (2000), starrring Michael Douglas, and the hip-hop musical 8 Mile (2002), starring Eminem.

Born in Reno, Nevada in 1945, Hanson began in the film industry on exploitation fare, writing his first script for 1970’s The Dunwich Horror and making his first film, Sweet Kill, in 1973, under the aegis of famed producer Roger Corman. Another early screenplay was for Samuel Fuller’s controversial race drama White Dog (1982).