Description
Robert Jonathan Demme ( DEM -ee; February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter whose career spanned more than 30 years.
Beginning his career under B-movie producer Roger Corman, Demme made his directorial debut with the 1974 women-in-prison film Caged Heat , before becoming known for his casually humanist films such as Melvin and Howard (1980), Swing Shift (1984), Something Wild (1986), and Married to the Mob (1988). His 1991 psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs won five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture.
His subsequent films earned similar acclaim, notably the HIV/AIDS-themed drama Philadelphia (1993), the supernatural Southern Gothic Beloved (1998), the conspiracy thriller The Manchurian Candidate (2004), and the independent drama Rachel Getting Married (2008).
Demme also directed numerous concert films such as Stop Making Sense (1984), Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006), and Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids (2016), and worked on several television series as both a producer and director.
