Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer behind “Titanic” and “Avatar” and a longtime collaborator of director James Cameron, is dead at 63.
Actress Frances Fisher first noted the producer’s passing in a post on X late Friday night. Landau’s passing was also reported independently by TheWrap via a source close to the family, who said Landau died after a battle with cancer.
Some of Landau’s other credits include Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 remake of “Solaris” and Robert Rodriguez’s “Alita: Battle Angel” from 2019. Landau, who was COO of Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment production banner, was also at work on producing the upcoming three “Avatar” sequels, the next of which is scheduled to arrive in 2025.
Reps for Landau did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment.
Landau was born in New York City in 1960 to Edythe and Ely Landau, film and TV producers and executives who worked with Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer. His passion for cinema was developed from a young age, and he would continue his education at USC School of Cinematic Arts into his position as Executive Vice President of Feature Film Production at 20th Century Fox during the early 1990s.
In 1997, Landau made his mark on film history, producing James Cameron’s epic romantic disaster film, “Titanic,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The film became the first ever to cross $1 billion at the box office, making it then highest grossing film of all time, and would go on to win 11 Academy-Awards, including Best Picture for Landau and Cameron. That record would later be broken by Cameron and Landau’s own “Avatar” from 2009, which was also nominated for Best Picture and won three Oscars.
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