Rick Allen, the CEO of SnagFilms and Indiewire - where Ray was a consultant - said in a statement that "the film world knew him as a fierce champion of artists, always looking for new ways to spotlight their work and increasing their freedom to create it. When he was at Universal, that company bought October Films.
While at MGM, he brought Ray on as president of United Artists. McGurk, now the CEO of Cinedigm Corp., is the former vice chair and COO of MGM and the former president and COO of Universal Pictures. My heart goes out to his wife, Nancy, and his family. "His passion, fire and spirit will live on inside all of us who knew him and whose lives he touched. "He was a brilliant, supportive voice for independent film and we will all miss him dearly," he told TheWrap. "I am shocked and heartbroken by his passing," said Chris McGurk, who knew Ray for 20 years.
HOLLYWOOD MOURNS LOSS OF YOUNG STARLET MOVIE
Outside the business, people like Bingham Ray are below the radar, but any movie lover checking his credits at IMDb would realize they had many reasons to be thankful to him." He had good taste, and sometimes was more optimistic about a film's box office prospects than its makers were. In an email to TheWrap, the critic Roger Ebert said that "at every festival I attended, Bingham was always there, always friendly, never rushed, always curious, always searching for good films. "He was there," Schmidt said, "and he slapped me on the back and said, 'Way to go,' and that was actually very meaningful." Schmidt recalled the movie's premiere at, in fact, the Sundance Film Festival. Ray appeared in "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," in which he said, describing the MPAA ratings board, "I'm going to use the F-word. He said that Ray was "tenacious and adaptable to the times as things change in the industry, and those are qualities that are rare." "I knew he'd be a great teacher because he has been a great mentor, and I'm so glad he had that opportunity," Pichirallo said.Įddie Schmidt, the Academy Award-nominated producer of the 2006 "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," remembered Ray as "a protector and defender of artists and their visions." One of the first things Pichirallo did upon joining NYU was ask Bingham to teach strategies for independent film producing. No one was more passionate about films than Bingham." "He will be remembered for his charm, wicked humor and his passion for films. "It's a tremendous loss," Joe Pichirallo, a former producer who is now undergraduate chair of the Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, told TheWrap. "I wish, on behalf of all my colleagues here, I had something meaningful and resonant to say, but the loss is too sudden and too great - I simply refuse, at least for this one day, to speak of Bingham in the past tense." "If anyone could claim paternity of us, it would be he. "All of us at Focus are blessed to know that Bingham - the very definition of an independent spirit - is part our DNA," Schamus said in a statement to TheWrap. And on Monday, James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features, mourned the loss of his fellow indie veteran. October was folded into USA Films, which later became Focus Features. Head of the San Francisco Film Festival when he died, Ray had been a co-founder of October Films, and later headed United Artists.
Ray was only 57 when he died after suffering a stroke at the Sundance Film Festival. Weinstein | Reuters – Mon, LOS ANGELES () - The film community is mourning the death of Indie veteran Bingham Ray on Monday following a stroke.
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