REUTERS

Updated Monday, January 22, 2024-23:29

Canadian film director

Norman Jewison,

whose eclectic range of masterpieces includes the

1967 racial drama "In the Heat of the Night,"

the tart 1987 romantic comedy

"Moonstruck"

and the

1971 musical "The Fiddler on the Roof,"

has died at the age of 97, his publicist said.

Jewison died on Saturday at his home, according to his publicist Jeff Sanderson on Monday

.

The Toronto native, whose films also included the 1966 Cold War satire

"The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming"

and the provocative 1973 rock opera

"Jesus Christ Superstar,"

was considered one of the most important directors of the last four decades of the 20th century.

He was greatly admired for his ability to create impactful films in many different genres.

His films won multiple Academy Awards, and Jewison received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1999. "In the Heat of the Night," starring

Sidney Poitier

and

Rod Steiger,

won the Oscar for best picture in 1967.

Jewison's Moonstruck (1987) became one of

Hollywood's most popular romantic comedies.

It tells the story of a Brooklyn widow

,

played by

Cher,

who agrees to marry a man she doesn't love and then falls in love with his brother, played by

Nicolas Cage.

After Cage passionately tells Cher that he loves her, she memorably slaps him and scolds him, "Stop it!"

Cher won the Oscar for best actress for her sassy performance.

Jewison's travels as a young man in 1940s America - seeing blatant white racism against blacks in the South - influenced his films, especially his three racial dramas: "In the Heat of the Night," "History of a Soldier" (1984) and "The Hurricane" (1999).

"In the Heat of the Night" focused on the relationship between a black police officer (Poitier) and a white sheriff (Steiger) in a racist Southern town.

The sight of Poitier's character beating a rich white landowner scandalized some moviegoers of the time.

Jewison's other notable films included

Steve McQueen 's

"The Cincinnati Kid"

(1965) and

"The Thomas Crown Affair"

(1968),

"Rollerball" (1975), a dystopian nightmare about corporate tyranny, and

"Agnes of God."

(1985), a saga of pregnant nuns.

Jewison remembers the ridicule he received as a child in

Toronto

from people who thought he was Jewish because of his name.

He came from a Christian family, but the misperception persisted.