Jeremy Thomas, Oscar-winning British film producer, dies at 77

What happened

Jeremy Thomas has died at his Oxfordshire home at the age of 77. His publicist said his family and loved ones were with him when he died peacefully on Friday. The British producer’s career extended across five decades of international cinema.

His biggest awards success came in 1988, when The Last Emperor secured nine Oscars. Thomas received the best picture award as its producer, following his work to raise independent financing for Bernardo Bertolucci’s ambitious drama about China’s final Qing emperor.

Joan Chen, Peter O’Toole and Vivian Wu were among the film’s stars. Its success established Thomas among Britain’s leading producers, although his work ranged far beyond historical drama: his credits encompassed crime films, literary adaptations, music-related projects and collaborations with Japanese directors.

Thomas also held senior standing within Britain’s film institutions. He served as chair of the British Film Institute and received a Bafta recognising his outstanding contribution to British cinema, alongside the awards earned by individual productions.

The background

Born in 1949, Thomas grew up in a family already closely connected to British film-making. His father, Ralph Thomas, directed the Doctor in the House series, whose stars included Dirk Bogarde. His uncle Gerald Thomas directed all 30 Carry On films.

Rather than beginning as a producer, Thomas entered the industry through editing. His assistant-editor work included The Harder They Come, the thriller starring Jimmy Cliff, and Family Life, directed by Ken Loach. These were his early credits before he moved into production.

That move brought his first producer credit in 1976 with Mad Dog Morgan. Made in Australia, the film cast Dennis Hopper as the outlaw named in its title, a figure from the country’s 19th-century history. It marked the start of a producing career that crossed national boundaries.

Nicolas Roeg became one of Thomas’s recurring collaborators. Together they made Bad Timing, Eureka and Insignificance. Thomas also produced The Shout for Jerzy Skolimowski, developing a body of work with directors whose films sat outside straightforward mainstream entertainment.

His collaboration with Nagisa Oshima brought Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence to the screen, with David Bowie among its cast. The production formed part of an enduring engagement with international directors, rather than a career confined to British subjects or English-speaking film-makers.

Bertolucci remained an important creative partner beyond their Oscar success. Thomas produced The Sheltering Sky and Little Buddha, continuing a relationship through which the Italian director became a substantial presence in the British producer’s filmography over several projects.

Their work together also included Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers. Those further credits made the partnership more than an association with one celebrated film: repeated collaborations with individual directors became a defining feature of Thomas’s approach to producing throughout his career.

David Cronenberg was another director with whom Thomas worked repeatedly. Their projects included Naked Lunch and A Dangerous Method. Thomas also proposed that Cronenberg should direct an adaptation of Crash, the novel by JG Ballard, bringing the writer’s work into that partnership.

Crash became one of the most disputed films associated with Thomas. Several UK local authorities banned it, turning a literary adaptation into a controversy with direct consequences for where audiences could see it. It was a particularly prominent example of his willingness to support contentious work.

Thomas’s work with British directors included collaborations near the beginning of their careers. Jonathan Glazer directed Sexy Beast, while David Mackenzie directed Young Adam, adapted from Alexander Trocchi’s novel. Stephen Frears was also among the British film-makers Thomas backed early in their careers.

A later return to Ballard’s writing produced High-Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley. Alongside the earlier adaptation of Crash, it placed two works by the novelist within Thomas’s production credits, each developed with a different director.

Other projects extended that range further. Terry Gilliam’s Tideland brought a dark comedy centred on a corpse, while Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive explored vampire fantasy. Both sat within a career that combined commercially successful films with less conventional independent productions.

Thomas worked with Italian director Matteo Garrone on Tale of Tales and Dogman. Those collaborations added another continuing European partnership to a filmography already shaped by his work with Bertolucci, Roeg and Cronenberg, as well as directors from Japan and Britain.

His credits also included Fast Food Nation and The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle. Julien Temple was among his collaborators, adding music-related film-making to the historical subjects, fiction adaptations and crime stories represented across his output as a producer.

Thomas made one film as a director himself. All the Little Animals, released in 1999, starred Christian Bale. It was a separate venture from the producing work on which he had built his reputation and which remained the central activity of his career.

Recognition extended beyond Britain and the Oscars. The European Film Academy honoured Thomas in 2006 with its Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema award. In the 2009 New Year Honours, he was appointed a CBE.

Thomas later became a documentary subject. In 2019, Mark Cousins accompanied him on a drive from the UK to the Cannes film festival for Garrone’s Pinocchio. The documentary arising from that journey screened at Cannes in 2021.

What people are saying

Tributes from fellow producers have emphasised Thomas’s influence on their own careers. Stephen Woolley credited him with helping make his career possible, describing a combination of exceptional ability and independence that he felt the industry had not sufficiently recognised.

Mike Downey, a producer and former chair of the European Film Academy, focused on the opportunities Thomas created for directors. He praised Thomas’s readiness to commit to film-makers when their projects represented risks others would not accept, linking that support to his belief in cinema’s artistic value.

Andrew Macdonald, the producer of Trainspotting, identified Thomas as a personal role model. His tribute highlighted the combination of independent judgement and a willingness to challenge convention, qualities also reflected in the accounts of Thomas’s work from other producers.

Director Luca Guadagnino, whose films include A Bigger Splash and Queer, praised both the breadth of Thomas’s output and the strength of his creative partnerships. He singled out the relationships with Oshima and Bertolucci when describing the producer’s contribution over half a century.

What happens next

Thomas’s latest production, Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, is scheduled to have its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday. Directed by Takashi Miike, it brings another collaboration with a Japanese film-maker to a career that continued into his final year.

Why this matters

For UK audiences, Thomas’s career connects familiar films with the producing work behind them: securing finance, supporting directors and helping projects reach the screen. His independently financed best picture winner demonstrated that international awards success could emerge outside a conventional studio-backed route.

His early support for British directors also links his legacy to subsequent generations of film-making. Alongside that domestic contribution, his work with European, Japanese and other international collaborators gave British production a role in films whose subjects, casts and creative leadership reached well beyond the UK.