PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) – Ailing filmmaker John Schlesinger, the Oscar-winning director of Midnight Cowboy, was taken off life support Thursday at a hospital here, his spokeswoman said. The 77-year-old filmmaker suffered a debilitating stroke in December 2000. Spokeswoman Ronni Chasen said his condition at Desert Regional Medical Center has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. Schlesinger’s last film was the 2000 comedy The Next Best Thing, which starred Madonna as a straight woman who decides to have a child with her gay friend, played by Rupert Everett.
Born in London in 1926, Schlesinger was a character actor for stage, film and television and also made documentaries such as “Terminus,” about a day in the life of a train station. He is perhaps best known for the 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy, which starred Jon Voight as a naive Texan who turns to prostitution to survive on the streets of New York, and Dustin Hoffman as the scuzzy, ailing vagrant Ratzo Rizzo. Schlesinger had two other Oscar nominations for directing 1971’s Sunday Bloody Sunday and 1965’s Darling. As an actor, he had small roles as a doctor in the 1997 TV movie The Twilight of the Golds and a prisoner in the 1956 World War II drama The Battle of the River Plate."
Schlesinger lives in Palm Springs with photographer Michael Childers, his companion of 30 years.
He certainly pushed the envelope in his day. Midnight Cowboy was the first film I remember having to show my driver’s license in order to get in. The film was amazing, although I haven’t seen it in a long time and have no idea how it has held up with time.
Hope he can hang in there awhile without the life support…but you have to give the man credit - it sounds like he is wanting to go out on his own terms.
Well, the IMDB is listing his obituary, so I guess the thread title is true in more ways than one.
Darling, Midnight Cowboy and Sunday, Bloody Sunday were gutsy and innovative projects at the time, although they all date a bit now (though all three have excellent actors in roles that still stand the test of time). His recent output wasn’t particularly notable, though I found Cold Comfort Farm thoroughly charming. Sad.
Oh jeez, I totally misread Eve’s post and thought he was getting better!
There was a really good article about Schlesinger in either Out or Genre last month, talking about the amazing mix of people who moved in and through his circles, the fabulous parties he would throw, and how he lived as an openly gay man decades before it was considered “appropriate.”
Yeah, first Rich and Famous killed George Cukor and now this. When will gay directors stop camping themselves to death?
