‘TRUE VISIONARY’

Legendary Hollywood Producer Walter Mirisch Dead at 101

He died of natural causes on Friday in Los Angeles, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Walter Mirisch, who won a 1968 Oscar for Best Picture for producing In the Heat of the Night, has died at the age of 101. The legendary producer died on Friday in Los Angeles of natural causes, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Born in New York to a Polish immigrant father, Mirisch went on to found a production company alongside his brothers in 1957, which also produced Best Pictures West Side Story and The Apartment. He served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1973 to 1977 and received two honorary Oscars, first in 1978 and then in 1983. “Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and as an industry leader,” academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yang said in a statement. In a 1983 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mirisch shared how he recruited high-profile filmmakers, such as Billy Wilder and Norman Jewison, and gave them creative freedom. “We offered these filmmakers what they needed. Billy could call me up and say, ‘I’d next like to do a picture about so-and-so,’ and that’s all we’d need to know,” he said. “We became, in effect, partners with our directors.” Mirisch is survived by his three children, Anne, Andrew and Lawrence.