Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, 73, died Wednesday morning in New York City. Family sources say the cause of death was esophageal cancer and complications from heart disease.
Demme started out making B-movies ("Handle With Care" in 1978) for producer Roger Corman in the 1970s, and displayed a talent that enabled him to graduate quickly to Hollywood features while retaining his quirky point of view _ "Melvin and Howard," "Something Wild" and "Married to the Mob."
He won his Oscar for "The Silence of the Lambs" and turned from there to passion projects. He directed the ground-breaking AIDS drama "Philadelphia," which won an Oscar for Tom Hanks. He loved the work of author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and adapted her novel "Beloved," starring Oprah Winfrey.
"Our story could be set in any major city and most small towns at this stage. I mean, it deals in a very head-on way with such subjects as AIDS, lawyers, the American justice system, homophobia, all other kinds of prejudices," Demme said in 1992 of his decision on the setting for "Philadelphia." "But, then, we decided that Philadelphia, being known as the City of Brotherly Love, the city where the Declaration of Independence was written, brought a special kind of resonance to a story about acceptance and brotherhood."
He also loved music, and directed several ground-breaking music documentaries, notably "Stop Making Sense" with the band Talking Heads. Demme made frequent trip to Haiti and was an activist involved in attempts to provide assistance to that nation. He made the documentary "Haiti Dreams of Democracy" in 1988.
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