GARY KURTZ

24 Sept

(27 July 1940 - 23 September 2018)

The American filmmaker Gary Kurtz, who has died aged 78 from cancer, was involved in various aspects of cinema although mainly as a producer and assistant director or second unit director. His film career began in 1965 as assistant director on Monte Hellman’s Ride in the Whirlwind with Jack Nicholson. Working on some fairly lowbrow movies, he was involved with such forgettable productions as Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, Beach Ball, Queen of Blood, Blood Bath, The Hostage and two more Monte Hellman pictures, The Shooting and Two-Lane Blacktop. And then he met George Lucas… and life changed for the better, with American Graffiti - an immense global success – which he co-produced with Francis Ford Coppola. He stayed with Lucas for the first two Star Wars films. After that he was producer for The Dark Crystal, Return to Oz, Slipstream, The Thief and the Cobbler with animation by Richard Williams, and The Steal with Alfred Molina. Kurtz then became involved with television with The Tale of Jack Frost, Friends and Heroes and Resistance. His last feature film was the teen thriller Gangsta Kittens in 2016. He never won an Oscar but was nominated for Star Wars and American Graffiti. Gary Kurtz was married three times and has three children, Dylan, Melissa and Tiffany. Born in California, he died in London.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

GARY KURTZ

CHARLES AZNAVOUR

DENIS NORDEN