Jonathan Demme was hands down one of my favorite directors so it saddens me to report that he’s passed away at the age of 73 due to complications from Cancer. Demme is best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs, the 1991 horror-thriller that was a box office smash and a critical triumph. But it wasn’t just Silence of the Lambs that captured audiences. He also directed Philadelphia and later did a phenomenal remake of the movie The Manchurian Canadian.
Jonathan is the brother of another late directed Ted Demme who was also extremely talented. Ted directed films like Blow and Beautiful Girls. Jon had a very distinct directing style that not many uses before him. Demme would often induce actors to look into the camera and it produced a very eerie kind of effect. Amazingly it worked in all the films he used it in no matter what genre of film it was.
The director most recently made 2015’s Ricki and the Flash, starring Meryl Streep as an aging rocker who must return home to Indiana due to a family crisis. The film disappointed at the box office and reviews were mixed at best.
Demme was married to director-producer Evelyn Purcell. He is survived by second wife Joanne Howard and their three children: Ramona, Brooklyn and Jos.
He will be missed.
(Photo: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK)
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