LOS ANGELES — Walter Mirisch, an Academy Award-winning producer who won an Oscar for the 1967 film “In the Heat of the Night,” died Friday. He was 101.
Mirisch died in Los Angeles of natural causes, according to a statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer and its president, Janet Yang.
“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is deeply saddened to hear of Walter’s passing,” Kramer and Yang said in the joint statement. “Walter was a true visionary, both as a producer and as an industry leader. He had a powerful impact on the film community and the Academy, serving as our President and as an Academy governor for many years. 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.”
Walter Mirisch, Former Academy President and ‘In the Heat of the Night’ Producer, Dies at 101 https://t.co/zq9RDnq0Oo
— Variety (@Variety) February 26, 2023
In 1957, Mirisch founded The Mirisch Company with his brothers, Harold and Marvin, Variety reported. The company was instrumental in the success of films like “Some Like It Hot” (1959), “The Magnificent Seven” (1960), “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Pink Panther” (1963) and “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1968).
The company was a producer on three films that won an Oscar -- “The Apartment” (1960), “West Side Story” (1961) and “In the Heat of the Night,” according to Variety.
Walter Mirisch won the Oscar for “In the Heat of the Night,” which starred Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, who won an Academy Award for his role as a bigoted Southern sheriff in the film.
Poitier acknowledged Mirisch during his speech at the 2002 Academy Awards when he accepted a lifetime achievement award, according to The Associated Press.
“Those filmmakers persevered, speaking through their art to the best in all of us,” said Poitier, who also starred in the film’s 1970 sequel, “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!”
“It was very difficult to get that made,” Mirisch told the Los Angeles Times in a 2004 interview. “People don’t really realize it was made right smack in the center of the civil rights revolution.”
Mirisch was not bothered by the prospect of the film causing unrest in the Deep South, the newspaper reported.
“I said if it doesn’t play in the South, it doesn’t play in the South,” he said. “What it has to say is so very important that the picture has to be seen, and there are enough places in this country where people will see and will want to see it.”
Mirisch served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1973 to 1977 and received two honorary Oscars. He won the Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1978 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1983.
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