Zalman King directed erotic film 9½ Weeks:
Director Zalman King, best known for erotic film 9½ Weeks and television series Red Shoe Diaries, died on Friday in Santa Monica, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. He was 69.
“Zalman was an extraordinary man and artist, more complex and humane than those who knew him only from afar could possibly imagine,” said Allison Burnett, King’s son-in-law.
Actor Charlie Sheen paid a tribute to the late director on his Facebook page, saying “the world lost a brilliant and noble soul today.”
King started his career on screen in the 1960s, star-ring alongside James Caan and Walter Koenig in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, before going on to play a lawyer in television drama The Young Lawyers in the 70s.
He transitioned to working behind the cameras in the 1980s, using erotica as a central theme in his films. King wrote and produced 9½ Weeks, star-ring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke as two lovers embroiled in a sexually charged relationship.
Burnett recalled that director Stanley Kubrick consulted King every night when filming Eyes Wide Shut because “he wanted to learn how to shoot eroticism.”
King is survived by wife Patricia Louisianna Knop, a screenwriter, and daughters Chloe King and Gillian Lefkowitz.
[vancouversun/Piya Sinha-roy/4 Feb 2012]
Zalman King, Director and Producer, Dies at 69:
The man behind “9 1/2 Weeks” and “Red Shoe Diaries” passed away in Los Angeles.
Zalman King, who directed 1990’s Wild Orchid and produced 1986’s 9 ½ Weeks, died Feb. 3, a rep from Zalman King Productions confirms to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 69 years old.
King, who was born Zalman Lefkovitz in Trenton, New Jersey, had bit parts in 1960s TV shows before segueing into directing and producing. His trademark was work with a strong, somewhat artistic, erotic content. His most successful films as a director were 1988’s Two Moon Junction and 1992’s Red Shoe Diaries, which went on to be a series on Showtime. His most recent credit was as the exec producer on Showtime’s Body Language.
[hollywoodreporter/Bill Higgins/3 Feb 2012]
