'Phone Booth' director Joel Schumacher passes away

Schumacher started off as a costume designer for 1970s films such as Woody Allen directorials Sleeper and Interiors.
Hollywood director Joel Schumacher (Photo | AP)
Hollywood director Joel Schumacher (Photo | AP)

Director Joel Schumacher, who is known for the film St Elmo’s Fire, two Batman movies, and Falling Down, passed away in New York on Monday morning, according to reports. He was 80.

Schumacher started off as a costume designer for 1970s films such as Woody Allen directorials Sleeper and Interiors, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and The Last of Sheila.

He also was a production designer on the 1974 telefilm Killer Bees. Schumacher then turned writer in the late ‘70s on Sparkle, Car Wash and film adaptation of Broadway musical The Wiz, and made his directorial debut in 1981 with sci-fi comedy The Incredible Shrinking Woman, featuring Lily Tomlin in the lead.

Schumacher has worked with many top stars of Hollywood including Val Kilmer, George Clooney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicole Kidman, and Nicolas Cage. 

He is also credited for nurturing rising talent at the time like Matthew McConaughey (A Time To Kill), Colin Farrell (Phone Booth), Demi Moore and Rob Lowe (St Elmo’s Fire), Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera), among others.

Many actors took to social media to express their condolences. “I don’t see how my career could have gone to the wonderful places it has if it wasn’t for Joel Schumacher believing in me back then,” said Matthew McConaughey said. Batman Forever star Jim Carrey wrote on Twitter, “He saw deeper things in me than most and he lived a wonderfully creative and heroic life. I am grateful to have had him as a friend.”

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