‘Evita, ‘Mississippi Burning’ director Alan Parker dead at 76

Alan Parker, the two-time Academy Award-nominated director behind more than a dozen indelible films such as “Mississippi Burning” and “Evita,” has died at the age of 76.

The London-born filmmaker passed away Friday after a lengthy illness, confirmed the British Film Institute.

Beginning his career in advertising, Parker’s first major project was the 1975 TV film “The Evacuees,” which led to Hollywood calling the following year for “Bugsy Malone.” The musical, in which children were cast as gangster adults, helped propel the careers of Jodie Foster and Scott Baio.

He would follow that up with the thriller “Midnight Express,” starring Brad Davis as an American jailed in a Turkish prison for years after being caught trying to smuggle hashish out of the country.

The movie, co-starring John Hurt and Randy Quaid, received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Parker for Best Director. It won for Giorgio Moroder’s score and for its adapted screenplay, penned by Oliver Stone.

Parker’s next project was the 1980 musical “Fame.” Set in New York City’s High School of Performing Arts, it chronicled the personal lives as well as career aspirations of a handful of gifted teens. The film was a box-office success, grossing $21 million at U.S. theaters against an $8.5 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo.

The film received six Oscar nominations and won two for score and the title song “Fame,” sung by Irene Cara. Parker also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Director.

“From ‘Fame’ to ‘Midnight Express,’ two-time Oscar nominee Alan Parker was a chameleon,” wrote the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Friday afternoon on Twitter. “His work entertained us, connected us, and gave us such a strong sense of time and place. An extraordinary talent, he will be greatly missed.”

For 1987′s supernatural drama “Angel Heart,” Parker teamed with Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro, whom he cast as Lucifer.

Largely ignored by moviegoers and critics alike at the time, the film is now regarded as a cult classic.

“I had been courting (De Niro) to play the Devil for some months and we had met a few times — and he had continued to bombard me with questions expressing every dot and comma of my script,” recalled Parker in an essay posted on his official website. “I had walked him through the locations we had found, read through the screenplay sitting on the floor of a dank, disused church in Harlem and he finally said ‘yes.‘”

Parker received his second Academy Award directing nomination for the 1988 historical drama “Mississippi Burning,” starring Gene Hackman and Frances McDormand.

In the 1990s, Parker helmed the musical comedy critical darling “The Commitments” and the Anthony Hopkins comedy “The Road to Wellville” before directing Madonna in the lavish 1996 musical “Evita,” based on the life of Argentine First Lady Eva Perón.

While Michelle Pfeiffer had been the default choice to portray Evita, Parker recalled receiving a four-page, heartfelt letter from Madonna expressing her desire to assume the role.

'Nightmare on Elm Street' star John Saxon dead at 84

“As far as she was concerned, no one could play Evita as well as she could, and she said that she would sing, dance and act her heart out, and put everything else on hold to devote all her time to it should I decide to go with her,” said Parker. “And that’s exactly what she did do.”

Later, Parker directed the 1999 film adaptation of Frank McCourt’s bestselling memoir “Angela’s Ashes” before taking on his final project, the 2003 death-penalty drama “The Life of David Gale,” starring Kevin Spacey and Kate Winslet.

Parker leaves behind his wife, producer Lisa Moran-Parker, five children and seven grandkids, according to Deadline.