Jon Landau, Avatar and Titanic Producer, Dead at 63

Jon Landau, who collaborated with James Cameron on Titanic and both the Avatar films, has died. He was 63. Landau’s family announced his death Saturday, and by Sunday tributes had poured in from those who knew and worked with him. James Cameron released a statement to The Hollywood Reporter remembering his friend and partner. “A great producer and a great human being has left us, he wrote. “Jon Landau believed in the dream of cinema. He believed that film is the ultimate human art form, and to make films you have to first be human yourself. He will be remembered as much for his vast generosity of spirit as for the movies themselves.”

Jon Landau started his film career as a production manager in the 1980s. Before meeting Cameron, he worked on such films as Honey I Shrunk the Kids and Dick Tracy. According to Cameron, the pair first met when Landau was “the studio ‘suit’ assigned to oversee True Lies in ’93.  In the midst of the logistical nightmare of that production we came to respect and enjoy each other.” Cameron poached Landau from Fox and the duo went on to make one of the most commercially and critically successful movies of all time, Titanic.

“Jon Landau was the kindest and best of men,” Titanic star Kate Winslet told Deadline. “He was a man who was rich with compassion and exceptional at supporting and nurturing teams of phenomenal creative people.” Landau nurtured Cameron through his multi-film CGI epics, Avatar and Avatar: the Way of Water. Both films were seen as potential follies, but went on to become two of the top-grossing films of all time.

Below are more tributes to Landau from those who worked with him, including Avatar star Zoe Saldaña and Joe Rohde, the Imagineer who worked with Landau on the Avatar-themed land in Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Devastated by the loss of my friend and Alita producer Jon Landau. He was so kind and personable that it was easy to forget he was also producing the biggest films in the world. He loved his family and his extended filmmaking family. He was a true inspiration and will be greatly… pic.twitter.com/sAukOZYbiK

— Robert Rodriguez (@Rodriguez) July 7, 2024

“The Avatar family grieves the loss of our friend and leader, Jon Landau. His zany humor, personal magnetism, great generosity of spirit and fierce will have held the center of our Avatar universe for almost two decades. His legacy is not just the films he produced, but the… pic.twitter.com/fsR77qHoO2

— Avatar (@officialavatar) July 7, 2024

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• Avatar: The Way of Water Sinks Titanic’s Box Office Record