From St Elmo's Fire to Veronica Guerin: Joel Schumacher's life in pictures
The American film director, screenwriter, and producer has died at the age of 80. He was best known for St Elmo’s Fire, Flatliners, The Lost Boys and the Batman films. Here we look back at his career
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Joel Schumacher, seen at the Sundance film festival in Park City, Utah, on 29 January 2010, was born in New York on 29 August 1939
Photograph: George Pimentel/WireImage
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Car Wash, 1976
Schumacher started his career as a screenwriter and had a hit with this comedyPhotograph: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
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The Wiz, 1978
Michael Jackson as Scarecrow, Ted Ross as Lion, Diana Ross as Dorothy and Nipsey Russell as Tin Man in the reimagining of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for an all-black cast, written by SchmacherPhotograph: Ronald Grant Archive
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The Incredible Shrinking Woman, 1981
Schumacher’s directorial debut, starring Lily TomlinPhotograph: Collection Christophel/Alamy
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St Elmo’s Fire, 1985
Schumacher’s first big hit was this coming-of-age movie starring the Brat Pack: Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, Mare Winningham, Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthyPhotograph: Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
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The Lost Boys, 1987
Kiefer Sutherland and Billy Wirth played vampires in this horror-comedyPhotograph: Jane O’Neal/Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
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Schumacher on the set of Cousins in 1989. The year before he had directed the video for Devil Inside by INXS. He also made a couple of documentaries about the band
Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
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Flatliners, 1990
Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt, William Baldwin and Kiefer Sutherland play five medical students experimenting with near-death experiencesPhotograph: Columbia/Allstar
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Falling Down, 1993
Michael Douglas plays the unhinged white collar worker D-FensPhotograph: Ronald Grant Archive
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The Client, 1994
Susan Sarandon and Brad Renfro starred in this John Grisham adaptationPhotograph: Warner Bros/Allstar
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Batman Forever, 1995
Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman and Chris O’Donnell appear in the superhero filmPhotograph: Warner Bros/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock
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A Time to Kill, 1996
The Ku Klux Klan burn down the house of a white lawyer, played by Matthew McConaughey, who is defending a black man in MississippiPhotograph: Warner Bros/Allstar
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Batman & Robin, 1997
George Clooney as the Dark Knight. Twenty years later, Schumacher spoke to Vice about the poorly received movie and the controversial bat nipplesPhotograph: Warner Bros/Allstar
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Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alicia Silverstone, Schumacher, O’Donnell and Clooney attend the Batman & Robin premiere at Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on 12 June 1997
Photograph: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
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8mm, 1999
The crime film stars Nicolas Cage and Joaquin PhoenixPhotograph: Columbia Pictures/Allstar
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Tigerland, 2000
Matthew Davis as Private Jim Paxton and Colin Farrell as Private Roland Bozz star in this story of recruits training at Fort Polk in Louisiana before joining the war in VietnamPhotograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar
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Schumacher in the Grosvenor Hotel in London in August 2001
Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer
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Phone Booth, 2002
Colin Farrell as Stu Shepard trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist’s sniper riflePhotograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar
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Veronica Guerin, 2003
Cate Blanchett, who plays the eponymous doomed Irish journalist, and Schumacher promoting the film in Cambridge, EnglandPhotograph: Rowen Lawrence/WireImage
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The Phantom of the Opera, 2004
Emmy Rossum as Christine and Gerard Butler as the Phantom in the film version of the musicalPhotograph: Warner Bros/Allstar
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Trespass, 2011
Kidman and Schumacher on the set of the thrillerPhotograph: Millennium Films/Allstar
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Schumacher at the Toronto international film festival on 14 September 2011
Photograph: Matt Carr/Getty Images
