(CNN) — Academy Award winning screenwriter Curtis Hanson has died. He was 71 years old.
Hanson, who won an Oscar for the screenplay of the “L.A. Confidential,” was found unresponsive in his home Tuesday, according to Officer Liliana Preciado, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles police. He died of natural causes, she said.
Hanson also directed “8 Mile,” a film about Detroit’s underground rap scene starring Eminem, and “Too Big to Fail” an adaptation of financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book on the 2008 financial meltdown.
But it was “L.A. Confidential” that really jettisoned into Hollywood’s elite.
Hanson also directed the neo-noir film, which starred Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kim Basinger.
“Thank you for believing in me & standing your ground,” Crowe said on Twitter. “In reality you made my job a career.”
Hanson fell ill while director the 2011 surfing film “Chasing Mavericks,” according to the LA Times.
Hanson was born in Reno Nevada on March 24, 1945. He spent time on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served on the executive board for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
A tweet from The Academy on Wednesday read “Thank you Curtis Hanson for all that you’ve given us. You’ll be missed.”
