versatile

Innovative and acclaimed British director Alan Parker, died Friday, July 31, after a lengthy, but as yet undisclosed illness, according to Variety. He was 76. Parker was nominated for two Best Director Oscars. One of those films was 1988’s Mississippi Burning, which highly dramatized the investigation of three murdered civil rights activists in 1964. The films starred Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman, with the latter being nominated for Best Actor. Parker’s first Oscar nomination though came for the 1978 drama Midnight Express, another film based on true events. Oliver Stone won his first Oscar for the screenplay, which focused on…