- Havard business executive graduate and Oscar Award winning producer Walter Mirsch dies at 101.
- He has also served as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for several years.
Walter Mirisch Oscar-winning film producer dies a natural death at the age of 101 in Los Angeles. He directed films like “Some Like it Hot”, ‘In the Heat of the Night, etc. He died in Los Angeles on Friday as per statements from Bill Kramer and Janet Yang academy’s CEO and president respectively.
They said that “Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and as an industry leader,” “His passion for filmmaking and the Academy never wavered, and he remained a dear friend and advisor. We send our love and support to his family during this difficult time.” Considering that he also served as a president and governor of the academy for years.
Walter Mortimer Mirisch was born in New York City on Nov. 8, 1921. After studying at City College of New York, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1942 and a graduate degree in business from Harvard in 1943.
Walter Mirisch who served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science from 1973 to 1977 was born just eight years before the first Academy Awards ceremony and received Oscars in 1978 and 1983 for his efforts and work on the body.
Mirisch along with his brother produced “The Apartment” and “West Side Story” which won the best-picture Oscar while Walter received the best picture Academy Award for the 1967s film “In the Heat of the Night”.
Walter created many hits from the 1950s to the 1970s which included “The Magnificent Seven”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “The Great Escape” “The Pink Panther, etc. He and his brother Marvin and half-brother Harold founded the company in 1957 which produced many successful television cuts into the movie.
Before producing 1959’s “Some Like It Hot” starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as cross-dressing musicians running from the mob the company started with a handful.
Walter later oversaw the commercial aspects of filmmaking as he was a Harvard-trained business executive and also was taking on unusual projects while he let his filmmakers concentrate on the Direction of the movie.
“Mr. Majestyk” and “Desperado” were the two movies from 1974 and 1987 which were part of Mirisch’s production and were written by crime novelist Elmore Leonard who later dedicated a Hollywood satire “Get Shorty” to Walter and called him “one of the good guys”.
Not just Elmore but also Sidney Poitier acknowledged Mirisch in his speech which is rare to come from a legend like him. He spoke at the 2002 Academy Award while accepting Oscar on behalf of Mirisch for lifetime achievement, “Those filmmakers persevered, speaking through their art to the best in all of us,” said Poitier, who starred in Mirisch’s “In the Heat of the Night” and the sequel “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!”.
Amidst all this Mirisch brothers oversaw direction and changed management style with each film as per need. A journal “Films and Filming” interviewed Mirisch in 1972 where he expressed his views about directors and producers who did both while some were only interested in filmmaking. In the interview, he explained, “We’ve worked with brilliant directors and producer-directors, and I must say that the relationship with each of them has been entirely different”.
In the 1940s Mirisch brothers joined the Allied Artists production company before which they worked in theatre. Also, they worked as administrative heads and heads of production in Allied Artists production later. There Walter produced Westerns and a series of low-budget titles like “Bomba the Jungle Boy” starring Johnny Sheffield who played Boy in the 1940s Tarzan movie.
In 1947 Walter married Patricia Kahan and had three children Anne, Andrew, and Lawrence. Later after the death of Harold the oldest brother the other Mirisch siblings continued producing 1980s theatrical movies. Some of these included late career movies like “Same Time Next Year”, “Midway” “Gray Lady Down” and “Dracula” 1979 earned Golden Globe for “Same Time Next Year”.
