ENTERTAINMENT — American filmmaker Joel Schumacher died on Monday, June 22 in New York City after fighting a year-long battle with cancer. Schumacher died peacefully at the age of 80 years old.
Among many other films, the director’s repertoire encompasses movies such as “St. Elmo’s Fire” (1985), “Lost Boys” (1987) and “Flatliners” (1990), as well two installments of the Warner Bros. “Batman” franchise in “Batman Forever”(1995) and “Batman and Robin” (1997).
He also helped bring to life two of John Grisham’s novels in the makings of “The Client” (1994) and “A Time to Kill” (1996).
Following his stint as the “Batman” director, he went on to direct films such as “8MM” (1999) which starred Nicolas Cage and “The Phantom of the Opera” (2004).
A New York Native from Queens, Schumacher started his career in the fashion industry, studying at Parsons the New School for Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. He was working as a window designer for New York department stores before deciding to move to Los Angeles to pursue an interest in film in the 1970s.
Upon moving to Los Angeles, he began working on sets as a costume designer while also earning a Masters in Fine Arts at UCLA. He worked on various screenplays on smaller films before being given his directorial debut with the movie “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” (1981) starring Lily Tomlin.
He’s worked with a bevy of big-name actors which have included George Clooney and Jim Carey and helped launch the early careers of Matthew McConaughey and Colin Farrell.
Schumacher’s latest directing stint came during the filming of the Netflix series “House of Cards” in 2013 where he directed two episodes for the show.
