Curtis Hanson Biography

Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 - September 20, 2016) was an American film director, film producer and screenwriter. His directing work includes the psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), the neo-noir crime film L.A. Confidential (1997), the comedy Wonder Boys (2000), the hip hop drama 8 Mile (2002), and the romantic comedy-drama In Her Shoes (2005).

Hanson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1998, for co-writing L.A. Confidential with Brian Helgeland.

Early life

Hanson was born in Reno, Nevada, and grew up in Los Angeles. He was the son of Beverly June (Curtis), a real estate agent, and Wilbur Hale "Bill" Hanson, a teacher. Hanson dropped out of high school, finding work as a freelance photographer and editor for Cinema magazine.

Film career

In 1970, Hanson co-wrote The Dunwich Horror, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story. Hanson wrote and directed his next feature Sweet Kill in 1973, then in 1978 wrote and produced The Silent Partner, starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer. From the early 1980s into 1990s, Hanson directed a string of comedies and dramas. He did thrillers, too: many of them deal with people who lose their sense of control or security when facing danger or under threat of death. Some, like the financial executive in Bad Influence and the police officers in L.A. Confidential, unexpectedly walk into violence and disaster.

In the 1990s, Hanson found box-office success with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and The River Wild, and received significant critical acclaim with his 1997 film L.A. Confidential, an adaptation of the James Ellroy novel. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two "? Best Adapted Screenplay (a credit Hanson shared with Brian Helgeland), and Best Supporting Actress (for Kim Basinger). Hanson's later works included In Her Shoes, Wonder Boys, 8 Mile, and Lucky You.

Hanson said that he was heavily influenced by the directors Alfred Hitchcock and Nicholas Ray. In an interview with the New York Times in 2000, Hanson stated that Ray's film In a Lonely Place was among many that he watched in preparation for the filming of L.A. Confidential. In 8 Mile, Kim Basinger's character watches Elia Kazan's Pinky on television. The film is about a mixed-race girl who passes as white; the reference to it in Hanson"?s film functions as an homage to the themes of racial mixing and boundary-crossing that are features of much of his work.

In 2011, Hanson made Too Big to Fail, based on the 2009 Andrew Ross Sorkin book of the same name about the beginnings of the financial crisis of 2007-2010. The film, produced for HBO, featured among its all-star cast William Hurt as Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, and Cynthia Nixon as his liaison to the press; James Woods as Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers; and Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke.

Death

Hanson later retired from his film work and was reported to have Alzheimer's disease. He died of natural causes at his Hollywood Hills home at the age of 71.

Filmography

Title	Year	Credited as				Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer	Other
The Dunwich Horror	1970
Sweet Kill	1973
The Silent Partner	1978
The Little Dragons	1980
White Dog	1982
Losin' It	1983
Never Cry Wolf
The Children of Times Square	1986					Television film
The Bedroom Window	1987
Evil Town						Credited as Edward Collins
Bad Influence	1990
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle	1992
The River Wild	1994
L.A. Confidential	1997
Wonder Boys	2000
8 Mile	2002
Greg the Bunny						Episode: "Piddler on the Roof"
Adaptation						Role: Orlean's Husband
In Her Shoes	2005
Lucky You	2007
Three Rivers	2010					Executive producer, episode: "Win-Loss"
Too Big to Fail	2011					Television film; executive producer
The Big Year
Chasing Mavericks	2012					Co-directed with Michael Apted