Jeremy Thomas, producer of The Last Emperor, dies at 77

Jeremy Thomas, the British producer of The Last Emperor, has died at the age of 77.

His family announced his death in a statement on Saturday, September 12, according to Deadline. Thomas died late on Friday, September 11. He died at his country home in Oxfordshire.

He was 77. He was born on July 26, 1949, according to Deadline. That lifespan covered almost five decades in which independent production in Britain changed shape around him.

A producer is the person who puts a film together. The job covers finding the script and the director, raising the money, hiring the crew, and staying with the project through the shoot and the release. Thomas worked in that role.

His best-known credit was The Last Emperor. It was a 1987 film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, whose role on the film was recorded by Deadline. The film later won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the organisation's top honour for the year's best film, according to Screen Daily. That award is voted on by members of the film industry. It remains the clearest public marker of the film's standing.

Thomas also produced Crash, the film by director David Cronenberg, according to Deadline. The credit links him to two very different kinds of film-making. One was a large-scale historical production. The other was a director-led project with a narrower release.

For viewers meeting his name for the first time, the two titles explain the range. The Last Emperor reached the centre of the awards calendar. Crash travelled a different path, through festivals and specialist cinemas. Both needed the same unglamorous work to reach the screen: contracts signed, locations secured, and a release date held.

No further details about funeral arrangements were included in the verified reports. The family statement confirming the time, place and age stands as the public record of his death.