English Patient producer Saul Zaentz dies at 92
Risk-taker driven to turn literary works he loved into film, dies after suffering Alzheimer's disease
Saul Zaentz, a music producer whose second career as a filmmaker brought him best-picture Academy Awards for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient, has died. He was 92.
Zaentz died on Friday at his San Francisco apartment after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Paul Zaentz, the producer's nephew and longtime business partner said.
Zaentz was never a prolific movie producer, but he took on classy productions, specialising in complex literary adaptations that Hollywood studios generally find too intricate to put on film.
Since moving into film at the age of 50 with 1972's low-budget country-music drama Payday, Zaentz made just 10 movies, giving him a remarkable three-for-10 batting average on best-picture wins at the Oscars.
Among Zaentz's other films were the 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, which later paved the way for the blockbuster action trilogy.
He also brought out the 1986 Harrison Ford drama The Mosquito Coast; 1998's acclaimed The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which co-starred English Patient Oscar winner Juliette Binoche; and 1991's At Play in the Fields of the Lord, a critical and commercial flop despite a cast that included Kathy Bates, Tom Berenger and John Lithgow.