Parker’s extensive filmography also featured hits like “The Commitments,” “Fame,” “Birdy,” “Angel Heart” and “Angela’s Ashes.”
The filmmaker, himself a two-time Oscar nominee, garnered many other accolades for his work; His feature films have won 19 BAFTA awards, 10 Golden Globes and 10 Oscars, according to the BFI.
He died Friday after a long illness, according to his statement. He is survived by his wife Lisa Moran-Parker, their five children and seven grandchildren.
“Alan Parker was a chameleon,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wrote on Twitter. “His work entertained us, connected us and gave us such a strong sense of time and place. An extraordinary talent, we will miss him very much.”
“Evita” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber added that he was “very sad” to learn of Parker’s death. “My friend and contributor to the movie Evita and one of the few directors who really understands on-screen musicals.”
Parker’s catalog of screen hits went from colorful musicals like “Fame,” the cult story of a group of students at a notorious New York City performing arts school, to “Mississippi Burning,” a dizzying depiction of racial tensions in the deep south. about the murder of three civil rights workers in 1964.
Those films, and many more of his vast canon, awarded Parker a BAFTA Scholarship Award in 2013, the highest award given by Britain’s leading film academy.
Parker also received the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1995, and then a knighthood in 2002. He was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain, the founding president of the UK Film Council and president of the BFI from 1998 to 1999.
“It brought us joy with Bugsy Malone, The Commitments, Midnight Express and many more,” the BFI said Friday.
“His incredible streak of success as a British filmmaker gave me great inspiration,” wrote British director Edgar Wright. “It is very sad to hear the death of Alan Parker. What a great director who made what I consider to be ‘real’ movies,” added actor Ben Stiller. “Look at her movies, they are some of the best from the 70s and 80s.”
CNN’s Lauren Kent and Sarah Dean contributed to the reports.
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