James Foley, whose decades-long directing career spanned both film and television, has passed away at 71.
The legendary filmmaker died “peacefully in his sleep earlier this week” in Los Angeles after a “years-long struggle” with brain cancer, his rep told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.
Foley’s directing credits include the classic films “At Close Range” (1986), “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992), “Fear” (1996) and the final two films of the Dakota Johnson-starring “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise: “Fifty Shades Darker” (2017) and “Fifty Shades Freed” (2018).
As for television, the filmmaking icon directed several episodes of Netflix’s “House of Cards,” the Showtime hit “Billions,” and the uncanny David Lynch series “Twin Peaks.”
Born on Dec. 28, 1953, Foley grew up in New York before studying film at New York University and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Years before his heartbreaking passing, Foley credited a chance encounter with the late director and editor Hal Ashby during his final year of film school as kickstarting his 30-plus-year career behind the camera.
“Because Hal Ashby had hired me, I became known to other people in Hollywood and got kind of viable in that weird calculus of Hollywood just because someone else, respected, thought I was viable,” he told Film Freak Central in 2003.
But Foley’s official debut didn’t come until 1984 when he directed Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah in the romantic drama “Reckless.”
His next project was directing the music video for Madonna’s hit “Dress You Up” in 1985. Foley would work with the Queen of Pop regularly thereafter to help shoot the videos for “Live to Tell,” “True Blue,” “The Look of Love,” and many more.
“So me, the crew and her just drove around the harbor to places that I had never seen in my life,” he once said about filming the music video for Madonna’s 1986 song “Papa Don’t Preach, calling it “a magical memory.”
Foley went on to work with some of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, including Sean Penn and Christopher Walken in “At Close Range;” Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Kevin Spacey in “Glengarry Glen Ross;” Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon in “Fear;” Gene Hackman and Chris O’Donnell in “The Chamber”; and Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in “Perfect Stranger.”
But a bad experience on the set of “Perfect Stranger” reportedly led the filmmaker to take a break from directing movies until he took over the “Fifty Shades” franchise.
“For various reasons, it was not the best experience I’ve had,” he told FilmInk in 2022 regarding the Berry and Willis thriller. “I kind of withdrew after that moment.”
He also shared his secret to having such a long and eclectic career.
“I am incredibly hands-on about everything,” Foley explained. “You have to know when to apply or relieve pressure. You have to make the actors aware that you’re empathetic. The best actors want to be directed.”
“Once you’re on the same wavelength,” he added, “you get incredible results.”
“Fifty Shades Freed,” which was released in 2018, was Foley’s last directorial project.
Foley is survived by his brother, Kevin; his sisters, Eileen and Jo Ann; and a nephew, Quinn, per THR. He was predeceased by a second brother, Gerard.
