Film director Norman Jewison died on Saturday, it has now become known. He was 97 years old. Jewison has been nominated three times for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, including for his breakthrough film, In the heat of the night From 1967.

The story revolves around a racist sheriff in a small town in the South of the United States, played by Rod Steiger, who has to work with a black detective from Philadelphia (Sidney Poitier). Jewison did not win an Oscar, but the film did win Best Picture and Best Actor (Steiger).

Also for Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and romantic comedy Absent-minded (1987, with Cher and Nicolas Cage), Jewison was nominated for the Most Important American Film Award. In the end, he won an Oscar for his entire work in 1999.

Jewison was born and lived in Canada on a farm near Toronto, but worked most of his life in the United States. He began his career in television, initially directing television musicals with stars such as Judy Garland, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, and Harry Belafonte.

Among his other famous titles are: Thomas Crown case (1968), starring Steve McQueen as a playboy trying to stage the perfect bank robbery, and a rock opera Jesus Christ is a star (1973).

Jewison has also worked several times with Denzel Washington, as in Soldier’s story And tornado (1999) about wrongly convicted boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter.

Many of his films had a social element, e.g grip (1978), starring Sylvester Stallone as union leader W In the countryStarring Bruce Willis as a Vietnam veteran. His last movie Statement Starring Michael Caine and Tilda Swinton from 2003 it flopped in cinemas.