Oscar-winning film producer Jeremy Thomas dies aged 77

Oscar‑winning film producer Jeremy Thomas died at the age of 77. His publicist said he “passed distant peacefully” surrounded by household and loved ones astatine his location successful Oxfordshire connected Friday, his publicist said successful a statement. Thomas built an international reputation over a career spanning five decades, working with directors such as David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, Julian Temple and Nicolas Roeg while backing both independent projects and mainstream successes. His most celebrated work, Bernardo Bertolucci’s *The Last Emperor*, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and earned Thomas an Oscar as producer. The 1987 biographical drama about the final monarch of China’s Qing dynasty starred Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole and Vivian Wu. Thomas repeatedly collaborated with Bertolucci, also producing *The Sheltering Sky*, *Little Buddha*, *Stealing Beauty* and *The Dreamers*. He worked with several British directors early in their careers, including Ben Wheatley, Jonathan Glazer, Stephen Frears and David Mackenzie. Additional credits feature Oshima’s *Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence* starring David Bowie, Cronenberg’s *A Dangerous Method*, Roeg’s *Bad Timing* and *Eureka*, *Fast Food Nation*, the *Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle*, and film adaptations of J.G. Ballard’s novels *Crash* and *High‑Rise*. After beginning his career in the cutting room, London‑based Thomas secured his first production role on the 1976 Australian film *Mad Dog Morgan*. In 2006 he received the European Film Academy’s award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema, and in 2009 was appointed a CBE in the New Year Honours. His most recent collaboration, with Japanese director Takashi Miike on *Bad Lieutenant:Tokyo*, is set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday.