Director James Foley, whose credits included Glengarry Glen Ross and the Fifty Shades sequels, has died aged 71.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, his death was confirmed by his representative who said he died “peacefully in his sleep earlier this week following a years-long struggle with brain cancer”.
His career was marked by versatility, from music videos with Madonna to commercial multiplex thrillers to talky TV dramas to erotic romances.
He made his directorial debut with the romantic drama Reckless in 1984, which starred Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah. It was an acrimonious start to his big-screen career with the film receiving negative reviews and angering screenwriter Chris Columbus, who disowned it.
He received better notices for his follow-up, crime drama At Close Range, which starred Sean Penn and Christopher Walken. In the same year, he also started working with Madonna, who was married to Penn at the time. Foley was the best man at their wedding.
He directed the videos for Live to Tell, Papa Don’t Preach and True Blue as well as the 1987 screwball comedy Who’s That Girl, which starred the singer alongside Griffin Dunne.
In the 1990s, he directed an episode of Twin Peaks before films such as David Mamet adaptation Glengarry Glen Ross, John Grisham drama The Chamber and Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon thriller Fear.
The 2000s saw him direct Confidence with Dustin Hoffman and Perfect Stranger with Halle Berry before the 2010s had him directing episodes of House of Cards and Billions, as well as taking on the two Fifty Shades of Grey sequels.
“Seriously, if you cast the right friggin’ people and they’re good actors, it’s amazing how little you have to do but stay out of the way,” Foley said modestly of his career in a 2003 interview.
