Norman Jewison, Director of ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ Dies at 97

Norman Jewison, the celebrated Canadian director who seemed capable of capturing anything on film with flair and temerity, pumping out fizzy comedies and sharp-tongued satires alongside edgier dramas that centered social issues across his nearly 50-year career, died on Saturday. He was 97.

Jewison died “peacefully,” his publicist, Jeff Sanderson, told the Associated Press. Sanderson declined to provide further details, but Variety reported that the director had died at his Los Angeles home.

Jewison was nominated for the Academy Award for best director three times across three decades, for 1967’s racial drama In the Heat of the Night, 1971’s big-budget musical Fiddler on the Roof, and 1987’s Italian-American rom-com Moonstruck. Though he was thwarted out of the directing statuette each time, In the Heat of the Night would claim the Oscar for best picture, beating out both Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate. Jewison was also honored with the Academy’s prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999.

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