Director Joel Schumacher Dead at 80

Joel Schumacher is dead at 80 years old.

The writer-director with a versatile filmography spanning decades died Monday, a representative confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter.

Following his directorial debut in 1981 with The Incredible Shrinking Woman starring Lily Tomlin, Schumacher landed the pivotal Brat Pack entry and box office smash St. Elmo’s Fire. This was followed by the beloved 1987 cult classic The Lost Boys, which remains a source of aesthetic and tonal inspiration across pop culture to this day.

Other key Schumacher entries include Flatliners, A Time to Kill, Phone Booth, The Client, and Falling Down. In the ’90s, Schumacher helmed a pair of Batman films, the Val Kilmer-starring Batman Forever and the George Clooney-starring Batman & Robin.

In a fascinating must-read interview with Andrew Goldman in August of last year, Schumacher reflected on his career while also offering up quotable bits of advice he often gave to film school students including “making movies is not all blow jobs and sunglasses.”

He was also asked to give his thoughts on how it feels to have a movie that’s not critically acclaimed go on to become a box office hit, i.e. St. Elmo’s Fire. For Schumacher, it was “the greatest thing” that could happen for a filmmaker.