Full name, Edward K. Demme; born October 26, 1963, in New York, NY; died of cardiac arrest, January 13, 2002, in Santa Monica, CA. Producer and director.Demme's short career began in the mid-1980s when he secured a job as a production assistant at cable network MTV. He later moved up the ladder to producerand director. Demme's first recognized success was the creation and production in 1988 of the popular MTV series Yo! MTV Raps. He directed a number of music videos, including videos for Bruce Springsteen, Salt-n-Pepa, and Henry Rollins, as well as several television specials, such as Rock the Vote and Denis Leary: No Cure for Cancer. Demme made his film directing debut in 1992 with the short film The Bet. Though he directed the feature Who's the Man? in 1993, his directorial breakthrough would notcome until the following year with the release of The Ref. The dark comedy was not a box office success but received positive reviews and quickly became somewhat of a cult classic. In 1996 Demme directed the star-studded Beautiful Girls, then worked on several television projects, including episodes of television series Gun and Subway Stories: Tales from theUnderground. In 1988 he earned his first film producer credit with Rounders. That same year he co-executive produced and directed the crime film Monument Ave. Demme produced several additional projects, includingthe HBO movie A Lesson before Dying, for which Demme received an EmmyAward, and the award-winning film Tumbleweeds. Demme's final film wasthe 2001 drug epic Blow, which he directed and produced.
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