November 18, 2006

Gary Graver, 1938 - 2006.

Gary Graver "Gary Graver died at home on Thursday, November 16th with his wife Jillian, son Sean and other family by his side following a long battle with cancer," reads the announcement at his official site. "Gary's passion for movies started as a teenager when he saw Orson Welles's, Touch of Evil and knew that he wanted to make movies with that kind of excitement and quality."

Just over a month ago, we ran Sean Axmaker's wide-ranging conversation with Graver, who, Jonathan Rosenbaum writes in a post to the a_film_by list, "virtually made the last third of Orson Welles's filmography possible... I think it'll be years before many people realize just how much he did for Welles - which means how much he did for all of us."

"He worked with everyone from Ed Wood to Billy Wilder in an astonishingly wide-ranging career that encompassed more than 300 films," writes Joseph McBride in a tribute at Wellesnet. "And he was a great guy. I've never met anyone in the film business who was better liked by everyone he knew."

Update, 11/19: Lawrence French presents the second part of his interview with Graver and Oja Kodar at Wellesnet.



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Posted by dwhudson at November 18, 2006 1:37 PM

Comments

Very sad. One of the best times I've had at the movies in a while was when Graver showed his collection of rare Orson Welles prints at the New Beverly.

Posted by: David Lowery at November 18, 2006 2:17 PM

The news of Graver's passing comes as a shock. I met the man twice, both times in interview situations. The second time, when I conducted an onstage conversation and Q&A with a disappointingly small but very engaged audience at ConWorks in Seattle a few years ago, I introduced myself and he said, "I remember. You really love Orson's work." To the end of his days, he was still trying to share Welles with the world, and it was his work with Welles -- films that Welles likely could never have made without Graver's dedication -- for which he was most proud.

Posted by: Sean Axmaker at November 19, 2006 10:54 AM

I similarly met Gary on a handful of occasions. The first, in Olympia about a decade ago, resulted in a lengthy conversation about Welles (of course). He was a bit concerned when I started asking him questions about Jim Wynorski's Dinosaur Island (which he photographed) and The Many Loves of Jennifer (which he wrote and directed). He couldn't believe that I was sincerely interested in his post-F for Fake work.

When we talked again last year at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I asked if he was finally willing to discuss his "other" films (often credited to "Robert McCallum"). As I saw it, Gary was long overdue for a full appreciation of his work and I'd hoped that this site was the place for it to appear. Sean's piece from last month was intended as a prelude to that conversation which, sadly, will never occur.

Posted by: Jonathan Marlow at November 21, 2006 1:45 PM