Jeremy Thomas Remembered as a Filmmaker ‘Full of Stories’ and a ‘Rebel With Taste’: ‘The Canon of His Work Is Unmatched’

Tributes have begun flowing from across the film world for Jeremy Thomas, the legendary British producer who passed away on Friday at the age of 77.

“He made great movies and was a loyal, dear friend,” said producer and publisher Charles Finch. “His father, Ralph, made a film with my father, Peter, called ‘No Love for Johnnie.’ We spent plenty of time talking movies, cars and praising the devilled kidneys as Wilton’s.”

Luca Guadagnino, who recently put Thomas on camera for his Venice-bowing documentary “Joie De Vivre” to talk about Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (with whom he made five films), offered Variety a statement about the producer.

“Jeremy Thomas’ death leaves a gigantic void. The space he was fulfilling was a space of pure cinema. Someone who knew how to collaborate with filmmakers and make them better, and how to be himself — a great filmmaker,” he said. “The canon of his work is unmatched, and some of the greatest movies of the past 50 years have been produced by him. And the level of the partnerships that he established in his career is incredible, from Nagisa Oshima to Bernardo Bertolucci. He was a generous man. He was a kind man. He was a man full of stories to tell, but at the same time, very curious to hear others people’s stories. I regret not having been able, in my life, to be produced by the great Jeremy Thomas, and I say a very moved goodbye to him.”

Thomas was greatly admired and loved by fellow British producers, such as Danny Boyle’s producing partner Andrew Macdonald. Macdonald told Variety that “Jeremy and I bonded over his father and my grandfather both producing films for Rank in the 1950s. He was a hero for me. A rebel with taste.”  Macdonald’s grandfather was Emeric Pressburger, the co-writer, co-director and producer of “The Red Shoes” and “Black Narcissus,” among other classics.

On social media, Edinburgh Film Festival CEO and director Paul Ridd said that the “loss of Jeremy Thomas is enormous, to film culture and to the world,” adding that he was “such a beautiful man and a extraordinarily generous supporter” of the festival.

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said that Thomas’ passing was, “Such terribly sad news for Jeremy’s loved ones, family, friends, colleagues, the filmmakers and for the British Film Industry he did so much for.”

Across a career spanning more than half a century, Thomas produced 80 features, championing the work of both international cinema and daring auteur filmmakers in the process. In 1988 he won the best picture Oscar for Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor.”