Filmmaker James Foley, who directed the 'Fifty Shades' series and several Madonna music videos, has died at the age of 71 after a battle with brain cancer.
A representative said James Foley "passed away peacefully in his sleep earlier this week" at his home in Los Angeles, the Hollywood Reporter reported on May 8.
James Foley was born in 1953 in New York and had a filmmaking career that spanned nearly 40 years. His work spanned a wide range of genres, from music videos with Madonna to commercial thrillers, TV series and adult romances.
James Foley made his directorial debut with the 1984 romantic drama Reckless. He had a rocky start to his big-screen career, with the film receiving negative reviews. His next film, the crime drama At Close Range, starring Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, was better received. That same year, he began working with pop queen Madonna, who was Sean Penn's wife at the time. James Foley, who was the best man at Madonna and Sean Penn's wedding, helped the singer direct the famous music videos Live to Tell, Papa Don't Preach, and True Blue.
In the 1990s, James Foley achieved even more success in cinema. The film Glengarry Glen Ross, released in 1992, was acclaimed at the Venice Film Festival, helping actor Jack Lemmon win the award for Best Actor. At the Oscars and Golden Globes, actor Al Pacino was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
In the 2000s, he made his mark with the film Confidence starring Dustin Hoffman and the film Perfect Stranger starring Halle Berry. James Foley then directed two sequels to the Fifty Shades series, Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018). The two 18+ films, based on the best-selling novels by author E.L. James, starring actress Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele and actor Jamie Dornan as billionaire Christian Grey, were both box office hits.
On television, James Foley directed an episode of the original Twin Peaks and supervised 12 episodes of House of Cards. He also directed several episodes of Hannibal, Billions, and Wayward Pines...
James Foley keeps his personal life private. He has two brothers and two sisters.