Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning producer of Titanic and longtime collaborator of director James Cameron, has died. He was 63.
Alan Bergman, the Disney Entertainment co-chairman, announced the sad news over the weekend. His cause of death was reported by Variety as cancer.
“Jon was a visionary whose extraordinary talent and passion brought some of the most unforgettable stories to life on the big screen,” Bergman said in a statement, per NBC News.
He continued, “His remarkable contributions to the film industry have left an indelible mark, and he will be profoundly missed. He was an iconic and successful producer yet an even better person and a true force of nature who inspired all around him.”
Bergman first teamed up with Cameron in 1994 when he oversaw the director’s action comedy True Lies as a film executive at 20th Century Fox. The duo joined forces again to make the 1997 romance flick Titanic, which earned both men an Academy Award when the movie won Best Picture in 1998.
Landau, who was also the chief operating officer at Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment production company, later produced Avatar (2009) and its sequel Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), both of which were directed by Cameron. Before his death, he was working on the franchise’s third installment, which is set to release in theaters in December 2025.
Cameron paid tribute to Landau in a statement to Variety, describing his friend’s “zany humor, personal magnetism, great generosity of spirit and fierce” as the “center of our Avatar universe for almost two decades.”
“His legacy is not just the films he produced, but the personal example he set — indomitable, caring, inclusive, tireless, insightful and utterly unique,” Cameron continued. “He produced great films, not by wielding power but by spreading warmth and the joy of making cinema. He inspired us all to be and to bring our best, every day.”
He concluded, “I have lost a dear friend, and my closest collaborator of 31 years. A part of myself has been torn away.”
Landau is survived by his wife Julie; their sons, Jamie and Jodie; and two sisters and a brother.
