Jonathan Kaplan, Director of The Accused, Dies at 77
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Jonathan Kaplan, Emmy-nominated director and producer of the series ER and the film The Accused, has died at the age of 77. His daughter, Molly Kaplan, confirmed that her father passed away in Los Angeles due to liver cancer.
Kaplan was born in Paris in November 1947. His father, Sol Kaplan, was a film and television composer, and his mother, Frances Heflin, was an actress on the series All My Children. He began his professional career as a child actor in the Broadway production of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, directed by Elia Kazan, and later studied film at New York University.
During those years, Martin Scorsese introduced him to Roger Corman, who hired him to direct Night Call Nurses (1972) and The Student Teachers (1973). Around the same time, Kaplan directed The Slams for Gene Corman, Roger’s brother, and then Truck Turner.
White Line Fever (1975) marked Kaplan’s first studio film for Columbia Pictures. His other directorial credits include Project X, Immediate Family (starring Glenn Close and James Woods), Unlawful Entry (with Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta), Bad Girls (with Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore), Mr. Billion, Over the Edge, and the television film The Gentleman Bandit. Additionally, Kaplan directed music videos for artists such as Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, and John Mellencamp. He directed Jodie Foster to an Oscar nomination in The Accused and Michelle Pfeiffer to an Oscar nomination in Love Field.
He directed dozens of episodes of NBC’s ER and served as a producer on series including Fallen Angels, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Without a Trace, Brothers and Sisters, and Witches of East End.
