Producer Branko Lustig IC infographic
On November 14, local time, Branko Lustig, a well-known Hollywood producer who won two Academy Awards for Best Picture for "Schindler's List" and "Gladiator", died at the age of 87 at his home in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
Stills from Schindler's List
Stills from Gladiator
Blanco Lustig was born on June 10, 1932 in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek. As a teenager, he was sent with his family to the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz and endured numerous ordeals. He once recalled witnessing the horrific scene of the Nazis publicly hanging seven prisoners in his first week in the camp: "I stood in the first row and watched. Before they were hanged, seven of them said in unison: We must remember, remember how we died, and we must tell our stories to the world. ”
After World War II, he and his mother were left alive. Growing up, he joined the Yugoslav film industry, where he worked for many years as a production manager and excelled at coordinating crew relationships. In the early 1970s, the Hollywood film Violinist on the Roof came to Croatia to shoot locations, and Rustig joined the crew as production manager. With his professional standards, he has won the favor of more and more Hollywood crews, participating in the production of films such as "Sophie's Choice" and "War and Memory".
In the late 1980s, due to the political turmoil in Yugoslavia, Lustig moved to Los Angeles to concentrate on hollywood films. Spielberg had a keen eye and invited him to be the producer of Schindler's List. When Spielberg listened to Lustig's personal account of the Nazi concentration camp experience, he could not suppress his excitement, clutched his arm, and looked at the number of prisoners in Nazi text. "He kissed the tattoo and told me he wished I could be a producer on Schindler's List. I thought about the instructions of those who died in the concentration camps, and I was finally able to live up to my trust. ”
In the end, "Schindler's List", engraved with Lustig's personal imprint, put him on the Oscar stage in 1995. "From Auschwitz to this stage, it's a long road." He said so in his acceptance speech. Afterwards, he donated his little golden figure to israel's Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. He also founded the Havoc Foundation with Director Spielberg and regarded it as one of the greatest achievements of his life.
After Schindler's List, he produced the action film "Doomsday Alert" starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, and collaborated with the british director Ridley Scott several times to produce many masterpieces such as Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Heavenly Dynasty, Good Year and American Gangster. After the news of his death, several Hollywood filmmakers, including "Gladiator" actor Russell Crowe, expressed their remembrance through social media.
Russell Crowe follows Lustig on social media