Emmy-Winning Director George Hickenlooper Dies at 47
Hickenlooper, whose features include Factory Girl and the upcoming Casino Jack, was also a prolific documentarian who won a Primetime Emmy for directing the 1991 film Hearts of Darkness.
George Hickenlooper, a director who got his start with documentaries and went to make several acclaimed feature films, was found dead October 30, 2010, in Denver, Colorado, where his mot recent film, Casino Jack, was scheduled to screen at the Denver Film Festival. He was 47.
According to news reports the cause of death was under investigation but police had ruled out foul play.
Casino Jack stars Kevin Spacey as convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The movie premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and will be released in the U.S. in December.
Born May 25, 1963, in St. Louis, Missouri, Hickenlooper grew up in a creative environment—his father was a playwright and his mother started a guerrilla theater troupe. His great uncle was renowned classical conductor Leopold Stokowski, whose work on the animated film Fantasia also influenced Hickenlooper’s ambitions.
After graduating from Yale University, Hickenlooper worked as an intern for producer Roger Corman. His first directing credit came with the 1988 documentary short Art, Acting, and the Suicide Chair: Dennis Hopper.
In 1992 Hickenlooper won a Primetime Emmy for directing the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, about the filming of Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam-era opus Apocalypse Now. Co-directed with Eleanor Coppola and Fax Bahr, Hearts of Darkness used footage shot by Eleanor Coppola during the production of Apocalypse Now. It also earned an Emmy nomination for nonfiction writing.
Other documentaries of note included 2003’s The Mayor of Sunset Strip, about disc jockey and music impresario Rodney Bingenheimer, and 2009’s Hick Town, which followed his cousin, John Hickenlooper, now mayor of Denver, during the Democratic National Convention.
He also made several scripted feature films, including the 1995 drama The Low Life, the 1997 drama Dogtown, 2001’s The Man From Elysian Fields, starring Andy Garcia and Mick Jagger, and 2006’s Factory Girl, a biopic about Andy Warhol protégée Edie Sedgwick starring Sienna Miller in the title role.
Survivors include his wife, son and parents.
In a statement, John Hickenlooper, who was campaigning for Governor of Colorado at the time of his cousin’s death, and won the election on November 2, said, “Shock and sadness do not begin to describe our emotions. We are devastated. George had immense creative talents and cinematic gifts, but he was so much more than that to us and all his family. His passion for life, zeal for people and unquenchable curiosity enriched everyone who had the fortune to know him. Our hearts go out to his wife Suzanne, and his son Charles.”