British independent film producer Jeremy Thomas, celebrated for championing auteur cinema and financing masterpieces like Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, died peacefully at his Oxfordshire country home on Friday, September 11, at the age of 77.
The Bottom Line
- A Monumental Legacy: Thomas produced over 80 features across five decades, earning a Best Picture Oscar for The Last Emperor in 1988.
- Industry Pillar: As the founder of the Recorded Picture Company (RPC) and co-founder of Hanway Films, he shaped independent British cinema by backing directors like David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, and Jim Jarmusch.
- Working to the Very End: His passing coincided with the final day of the 83rd Venice Film Festival, where Werner Herzog’s competition entry Bucking Fastard—which Thomas produced—premiered alongside his appearance in Luca Guadagnino’s documentary Joie de Vivre.
A Titan of Independent Cinema Leaves the Stage
The global film community lost one of its independent champions late Friday night as Jeremy Thomas passed away surrounded by his family in Oxfordshire, according to a family statement reported by Deadline. Born into a filmmaking family on July 26, 1949—his father Ralph directed many Doctor films and his uncle Gerald was known for the Carry On films—Thomas forged a different path in the industry.
Thomas built his career on auteur visions, international co-productions, and artistic integrity. After cutting his teeth in the editing rooms of the early 1970s—working on Ken Loach’s A Family Life—he stepped into producing with Philippe Mora’s Australian-shot feature Mad Dog Morgan starring Dennis Hopper. That independence soon crystallized with the founding of the Recorded Picture Company (RPC), which launched in 1978 with Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes-winning The Shout.
Building a Vault of Daring Masterpieces
When Bernardo Bertolucci needed an independent financier for an epic three-year gamble about China’s final imperial ruler, Thomas delivered. The Last Emperor swept the 1988 Academy Awards, collecting nine Oscars, including Best Picture.
That collaboration was just the beginning of a career spanning more than 80 credits. He produced Nagisa Oshima’s powerful prisoner-of-war drama Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence featuring David Bowie, Nicolas Roeg’s psychological works like Bad Timing and Insignificance, and David Cronenberg’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s Crash, which sparked censorship debates following its Cannes debut in 1996.
| Year | Film Title | Director | Notable Achievement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | The Shout | Jerzy Skolimowski | Won Grand Prix de Jury at Cannes Film Festival (RPC’s debut) |
| 1983 | Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence | Nagisa Oshima | Starred David Bowie; major international co-production |
| 1987 | The Last Emperor | Bernardo Bertolucci | Won 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture |
| 1996 | Crash | David Cronenberg | Sparked intense debate and censorship discussions at Cannes |
| 2000 | Sexy Beast | Jonathan Glazer | Critically acclaimed feature debut for Glazer |
A Legacy Forged in Creative Collaboration
His enduring partnerships with Bertolucci (The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty, The Dreamers) and his collaborations with Takashi Miike, Wim Wenders, Stephen Frears, and Terry Gilliam proved that independent production could thrive globally.
Working right up until his final days, Thomas’s active slate included Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard in competition at the Venice Film Festival—where Herzog credited Thomas with the casting idea of pairing Kate and Rooney Mara—as well as Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, slated to premiere in Toronto.
Documentarians also sought to capture his approach to the medium. He was the subject of Mark Cousins’s The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, which chronicled his annual pilgrimage to Cannes, and more recently appeared in Luca Guadagnino’s seven-hour documentary Joie de Vivre, cementing his status as a keeper of the flame for 20th-century cinephilia.
As the international film business continues to navigate corporate consolidation and risk-averse franchise strategies, the passing of Jeremy Thomas marks the fading of an independent producer for whom cinema was never just a balance sheet, but a way of life.
