Curtis Hanson, 71; won Oscar as director of 'L.A. Confidential' . By
Jonah Engel Bromwich New York Times . NEW YORK - Curtis Hanson, the
film director whose adaptation of the James Ellroy noir novel "L.A.
Confidential" won him an Academy Award, died Tuesday at his home in Los
Angeles. He was 71. The death was confirmed by Officer Jenny Houser, a
spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. She said that
officers had been called to the house shortly before 5 p.m., and that
Mr. Hanson had died of natural causes. Julie Mann, his business
manager, said Mr. Hanson had been struggling for some time with a form
of dementia. Mr. Hanson directed a handful of hits, including "The Hand
That Rocks the Cradle," "The River Wild," and "8 Mile," as well as the
well-received television movie "Too Big to Fail. But "L.A.
Confidential," released in 1997, was his biggest film and his most
successful artistic creation. In it he captures the midcentury Los
Angeles that Ellroy portrayed in his novel, a world of corrupt police
officers and organized crime, Hollywood backroom deals, and
prostitution. Mr. Hanson drew inspiration as well from films by Stanley
Kubrick, Robert Aldrich, and Nicholas Ray in which Los Angeles played a
key role. Ray's 1950 film, "In a Lonely Place," about a Hollywood
screenwriter (played by Humphrey Bogart) suspected of murder, was a
touchstone for Mr. Hanson. "It was the era of mystery and glamour," Mr.
Hanson said in an interview with The New York Times promoting the film,
"an era when everything started in that postwar boom that's still very
much with us - the freeways, the idea and growth of suburbia,
television, the start of the tabloid press. "L.A. Confidential" starred
Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger and introduced to American audiences New
Zealand actor Russell Crowe and Australian Guy Pearce. "Curtis has this
great ability to see what makes you tick and find the appropriate
things to say," Pearce said in an interview years later. "I don't mean
in a politically correct way, but as in terms of inspiring you and
getting you to do what he wants. To me, that's the job description of
what directing is all about. Released to critical acclaim, "L.A.
Confidential" was nominated for nine Oscars, including for best picture
and best director. But it was competing against "Titanic" in many
categories ("Titanic" took the best picture award) and won only two
awards, for best supporting actress (Basinger) and best adapted
screenplay (Mr. Hanson and his cowriter, Brian Helgeland). "L.A.
Confidential" was one of two dozen pictures named by the Library of
Congress in 2015 as worthy of preservation in the National Film
Registry. Reviewing the film in The Times, Janet Maslin called it
"resplendently wicked" - "a tough, gorgeous, vastly entertaining
throwback to the Hollywood that did things right" - and cautioned
would-be viewers, "Take a popcorn break and you'll be sorry. Curtis Lee
Hanson was born in Reno in 1945, and raised in Los Angeles. His father,
Wilbur, was a schoolteacher, and his mother, Beverly, a homemaker. He
was interested in film at an early age and dropped out of high school
to make movies. He started small, with a horror film called "The
Arousers" in the early 1970s. In 1983, his film "Losin' It" gave Tom
Cruise his first starring role. "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," a
psychological thriller about a revenge-seeking nanny starring Annabella
Sciorra and Rebecca De Mornay, was Mr. Hanson's breakout hit, released
in 1992. He followed that with another hit, "The River Wild" (1994),
which featured Meryl Steep as a rafting enthusiast who encounters two
criminals, played by Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly, on a trip down the
Salmon River in Idaho. Mr. Hanson had more luck with the critics than
with audiences. The gentle comedy "Wonder Boys" (2000), his follow up
to "L.A. Confidential," was met with critical approval but flopped at
the box office. Based on a Michael Chabon novel and set in Pittsburgh,
it starred Michael Douglas as a frustrated creative-writing professor
caught up in tangled relationships. His Cameron Diaz vehicle, "In Her
Shoes" (2005), and poker movie, "Lucky You" (2007), also failed to make
much of an impact. He did, however, have a hit in 2002 with "8 Mile,"
shot in Detroit and based on the life of rapper Marshall Mathers,
better known as Eminem, who played the lead role, a young battle rapper
who freestyles and writes rhymes under the moniker B-Rabbit. In later
years, Mr. Hanson directed the television movie "Too Big to Fail"
(2011), a dramatization of the 2008 financial crisis based on a book by
Andrew Ross Sorkin. His last film, in which he shared directing credit
with Michael Apted, was the surfing film "Chasing Mavericks" (2012). He
leaves his mother, Beverly June Hanson; his brother, Woody; his
longtime partner, Rebecca Yeldham; and their son, Rio.
