'One of the Luckiest People That Ever Lived' Has Died

Director Joel Schumacher started out as a costume designer
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2020 2:50 PM CDT
'One of the Luckiest People That Ever Lived' Has Died
In this Sept. 14, 2011 photo, director Joel Schumacher participates in a news conference for the film "Trespass" during the Toronto International Film Festival.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

Add Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher to the list of those we've lost in 2020. The 80-year-old, who started out as a costume designer on films like Woody Allen's Sleeper before going on to direct around two dozen movies, died in New York City Monday after a yearlong battle with cancer, Variety reports. He "came from a world of window dressing and costume design to bring a singular style to films" including early hit St. Elmo's Fire, Flatliners, and two Batman movies, per the Hollywood Reporter. He also directed Falling Down and two hit John Grisham adaptations, The Client and a Time to Kill. He pulled back from making blockbusters after the critically panned Batman and Robin in 1997, but scored more successes with films including 8mm, Phone Booth, and The Number 23.

Schumacher also directed two episodes of House of Cards and, most recently, the 2015 miniseries Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors. He had an "uncanny ability to recognize the young talent" and helped launch the careers of stars including Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, and Matthew McConaughey, the Reporter notes. He worked in the fashion industry in New York before he decided to pursue a career in Hollywood. "I think I’m one of the luckiest people that ever lived. I got my dream. I got it so much bigger than even I could have dreamed it,” he said in 2017, per the Guardian. "You know, I’m just a kid whose parents died very young who was on his own and grew up behind a movie theater before TV, and I wanted to tell those stories, and look what happened." (More Joel Schumacher stories.)

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