Los Angeles-based Parisian documentarian, film historian, author and screenwriter Michael Henry Wilson has passed away from lung cancer at 67.
Best known for his Emmy-winning When The Lion Roars: The MGM Story, narrated by Patrick Stewart, Wilson was also hailed for such works as Reconciliation: Mandela’s Miracle and Clint Eastwood: A Life In Film/Clint Eastwood, le franctireur and La Cinéma de James Cameron.
Wilson also enjoyed a longstanding collaborative relationship with Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese. He made several documentaries based on Scorsese’s filmmaking — In Search Of Kundun, A Day In The Life Of Cinema (filmed on the set of Casino) and some shorts on the Mean Streets DVD — as well as a three-part documentary entitled A Personal Journey Through American Movies.
Wilson was working on another documentary with Scorsese – this one a three-parter on classic British cinema – and was in pre-production for the doc Burma’s Gandhi.
His scripted work included the film Intimate Affairs (2000) and he served as a creative consultant on The Moderns (1988), as well as authoring several history books about film.
Wilson is survived by wife Carole, a documentary film producer, and three children.