FAME and EVITA Film Director Alan Parker Dies at 76

British writer-director Alan Parker has passed away at the age of 76, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Parker died Friday, July 31 following a lengthy illness, the British Film Institute confirmed.

The two-time Oscar nominee directed films such as Evita, Fame, The Commitments, Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning.

Parker was born on February 14, 1944, in Islington, UK. His mother was a seamstress and his father delivered the Sunday Times and later was a house painter.

After attending school, he landed jobs as a copywriter at the advertising agencies Maxwell Clarke, PKL and then CDP, the ad firm run by Colin Millward. While working at CDP, he started making commercials. At CDP, Parker crossed paths with David Puttnam and with his encouragement, Parket wrote a script for Melody (1971) that weaved around songs from the Bee Gees and was inspired by his school days. Parker then formed the Alan Parker Film Co.

In 1976, Parker won the first of his six career BAFTA honors for directing The Evacuees. His first feature was Bugsy Malone, was a musical period piece set in 1929 New York City during Prohibition. Parker directed 14 features in total, and wrote six of them. Many of his films featured musical elements like Bugsy Malone. Those films included Fame (1980), Pink Floyd: THE WALL (1982), The Commitments (1991) and Evita (1996).

Parker directed Midnight Express (1978) and Mississippi Burning (1988), the two films that earned him Oscar nominations for Best Director and Picture.

Parker also directed Shoot the Moon (1982), Birdy (1984), Come See THE PARADISE (1990), Road to Wellville, Angela's Ashes (1999), and The Life of David Gale (2003).

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1995 and knighted in 2002. Parker retired from the film industry in 2015 and he spent his time in recent years painting.

Parker is survived by his second wife, Lisa Moran-Parker; his children, Lucy, Alexander, Jake, Nathan and Henry; and seven grandchildren.

Read the original article on The Hollywood Reporter.

Photo Credit: Lisa Moran Parker

Andrew Lloyd Webber remembered Parker on Twitter, writing, "Very sad to hear the news of Alan Parker's death. My friend and collaborator on the Evita movie and one of the few directors to truly understand musicals on screen."