James Foley, a journeyman director finest identified for Glengarry Glen Ross, has died. He was 71.
He died earlier this week after a yearlong battle with mind most cancers, his consultant, Taylor Lomax, stated Friday.
In his lengthy and assorted profession, Foley directed music movies for Madonna, 12 episodes of Home of Playing cards and the 2 Fifty Shades of Gray sequels, nevertheless it was his 1992 adaptation of David Mamet’s foulmouthed Pulitzer Prize profitable play that stood above the remainder.
Though it wasn’t a success on the time, Glengarry Glen Ross wormed its manner into the tradition and grew into an oft-quoted cult favorite, particularly Alec Baldwin’s “at all times be closing” monologue, which was distinctive to the movie model of the play.
Critic Tim Grierson wrote 20 years after its launch that it stays “one of many quintessential trendy films about masculinity.”
“Whereas there are a lot of nice Mamet films, it is attention-grabbing that the very best of them was this one — the one he did not direct,” Grierson stated.
Hal Ashby took an early curiosity
Born on Dec. 28, 1953, in Brooklyn, Foley studied movie in graduate faculty on the College of Southern California. Legend has it that Hal Ashby as soon as wandered into a movie faculty celebration the place his brief occurred to be enjoying on the time, and he took a liking to him.
Foley would later attribute his potential to make his first characteristic, Reckless, a 1984 romantic drama about mismatched youngsters in love starring Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Adam Baldwin, to the Ashby stamp of approval. It was additionally the primary screenplay credited to Chris Columbus, although there have been reviews of artistic variations.
He adopted it with the Sean Penn crime drama At Shut Vary, the Madonna and Griffin Dunne screwball comedy Who’s That Lady and the neo-noir thriller After Darkish, My Candy, with Jason Patric.
Critic Roger Ebert included After Darkish, My Candy in his nice films record, calling it “one of many purest and most uncompromising of contemporary movie noir” regardless of having been “nearly forgotten.”
He additionally directed a number of music movies for Madonna, together with Papa Do not Preach, Reside to Inform and Who’s That Lady, and an episode of Twin Peaks in addition to an episode of Hannibal.
Foley tailored John Grisham and labored with Gene Hackman on The Chamber and made the Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg teenage love-gone-scary thriller Worry.
He labored with Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz on the 2003 American crime drama Confidence and helmed the largely derided Halle Berry and Bruce Willis psychological thriller Excellent Stranger, which was launched in 2007.
Bored by automotive chases and stunts
It will be a decade earlier than his subsequent movie was launched, when he was given the reins to the Fifty Shades of Gray sequels: Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.
“For me, what’s most difficult is stuff that does not contain the actors, oddly sufficient. In three, there is a large automotive chase and there is completely different stunts and stuff, and that stuff actually bores me,” he informed the Related Press on the U.Ok. premiere of Fifty Shades Darker.
“So, when the actors aren’t round, that is troublesome as a result of the actors give me a lot power and sort of engagement and a automotive driving by would not do the identical factor.”
Foley was not an simply definable director, however that was by design. In 2017, he informed the Hollywood Reporter that he had no real interest in repeating himself.
“I’ve at all times simply adopted my nostril, for higher or for worse, generally for worse,” he stated. “What’s finest and what’s worst [about the industry] are nearly the identical to me. What’s worst is you get pigeonholed, and what’s finest is I have not been. It signifies that I am nonetheless making films, regardless of hopping in all places.”
Foley is survived by his brother, Kevin Foley, and sisters Eileen and Jo Ann.
