Tributes from across the industry have been rolling in this weekend following the death of veteran producer Jeremy Thomas. He died on September 11. He was 77 years old.
His family announced his death in a statement on Saturday, September 12.
“Jeremy Thomas, the celebrated British producer of The Last Emperor and of over 40 other films, has died at the age of 77,” it reads. “Thomas passed away peacefully at his country home in Oxfordshire late on Friday 11th, surrounded by his family and loved ones.”
Sony Pictures Classics chief Tom Bernard described Thomas’s accomplishments as “extraordinary” in a statement.
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“One of my great regrets is that he was never properly honored by one of the major festivals for his extraordinary contribution to our industry,” Bernard said. “I’ll always remember being with him at the Oscars when he won Best Picture — he was absolutely thrilled. He was a great friend to Sony Pictures Classics, but, above all, he was a great friend to me. I will miss him tremendously.”
BAFTA shared an official statement on Monday. The note read: “We were saddened to hear in the weekend’s news of the death of acclaimed film producer Jeremy Thomas, at the age of 77. Thomas’ films include Sexy Beast, The Sheltering Sky and the multi-award-winning The Last Emperor. He was also presented with the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in 1991.”
Filmmaker and writer White Stillman described Thomas as a “wonderful guy & last of the very greats” in a post on X.
“He’ll likely continue to inspire many films,” Stillman said of Thomas.
Amazon acquisitions chief Scott Foundas described Thomas as “a true maverick among independent producers and an equally singular human being” in an X post.
“A tireless champion of the artists (and causes) he believed in; a seeker whose childlike wonder and curiosity never dulled, and who was at home wherever he went in the world (London, L.A., Cannes, Sydney, Tokyo),” Foundas wrote of Thomas. “Jeremy, I shall treasure the times we spent together, and look forward to seeing you at the next crossing.”
Edinburgh Film Festival head Paul Ridd described Thomas’ death as an enormous loss to “film culture and to the world.”
“Such a beautiful man and an extraordinarily generous supporter of @edfilmfest,” Ridd wrote. “What a legacy. I feel honoured to have known him and to have spent time with him. Condolences to all who knew him and loved him.”
Thomas racked up more than 80 credits over his career, including Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning The Last Emperor, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast and David Cronenberg’s Crash. News of Thomas’ death broke on the final day of the 83rd Venice Film Festival, which featured Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard in the main competition. Thomas was a producer on the film.
Thomas was born on July 26, 1949, into a filmmaking family. His father directed more than 40 features, including classics such as The 39 Steps and many of the pictures in the comedic Doctor franchise, while his uncle Gerald Thomas was known for the Carry On films.
After school, he took various jobs in the film industry, eventually moving into editing to take assistant editor credits on films such as The Harder They Come and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and first assistant editor on Ken Loach’s A Family Life.
He moved into producing in 1974 with the Australia-shot feature Mad Dog Morgan, starring Dennis Hopper.
Shortly after, he founded the London-based independent production house, Recorded Picture Company (RPC), kicking off its activities with Jerzy Skolimowski’s The Shout, which won the Grand Prix de Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978. He would go on to found production and foreign sales company Hanway Films in 1998 with Peter Watson and Stephan Mallmann.
Early highlights of his prolific career included Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), starring David Bowie as a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp; Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing (1983), Eureka (1984) and Insignificance (1985); and Stephen Frears’ The Hit.
A crowning achievement was Bertolucci’s epic independently-financed picture The Last Emperor, which took three years to make and went on to win nine Oscars in 1987 and become a commercial success.
Thomas would continue to work with Bertolucci, producing The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1992), Stealing Beauty (1996) and The Dreamers (2003).
The Cannes habitué Thomas was also the subject of a documentary, Mark Cousins’s The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, in which the writer and director accompanied the producer on his annual pilgrimage to the festival.
In an interview with Deadline’s Disruptors magazine ahead of the film’s premiere in Cannes in 2021, Thomas said there were several Ballard books he still wanted to adapt, but added, “My time is limited”.
In his later years, Thomas suffered from cancer but continued to work tirelessly. He was married twice, first to Claudia Frohlich (m. 1977; div. 1981) and then to Eski Thomas née Vivien Coughman in 1982. He is survived by his wife and three children, Jessica, film and TV agent Jack, and Joshua.
