Fred Roos | Photo Credit: AP

Oscar-winning producer Fred Roush The Godfather Part II The man who helped launch the careers of many superstars from Jack Nicholson to Tom Cruise has died. He was 89.

She died at her home in Beverly Hills, California, on Saturday, just days after filming her and Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film, a representative said Tuesday. Metropolitan Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

“(He) was determined never to retire from the movie business and to carry on in his shoes,” his son Alexander “Sandy” Roos said in a statement. “His wish came true.”

Ruiz and Coppola worked together for more than 50 years, beginning with Saintwhere he advised on the casting of Al Pacino and James Caan against the studio’s wishes and introduced Coppola to John Cazale. He produced Coppola’s Best Picture nominees Conversation, Apocalypse Now and Parts II and III Saint,

Coppola called him “one of the great casting talents” in a 2004 interview with the Chicago Tribune.

Stories of their influence on some of the greatest films of all time, from The Godfather Trilogy Star Warsis the stuff of Hollywood legend. Star WarsGeorge Lucas asked the Russos for their thoughts.

Lucas received the script back from Russia with several names on it: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and James Earl Jones. Russo also helped Lucas assemble a young cast for the film. american graffiti And foreignerIntroduced to a wider audience such actors as Cruise, Ford, Diane Lane, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze.

He said in an interview about casting, “I always feel that the actors I cast in my films will become stars and we will hear about them again.” foreigner,

Sometimes it takes some convincing, like casting Ford as Han Solo. In 2004, Ford said, “Once he believes in you, he’s adamant. He kept offering me roles and I kept getting rejected. Eventually things worked out.”

Ruiz’s other discoveries include Diane Keaton, Laurence Fishburne, Emilio Estevez, Jennifer Connelly and Alden Ehrenreich.

“It’s always kind of intangible. I just have a feeling about someone,” Ruiz said of his ability to spot talent in an interview Entertainment Weekly In 2016. “A lot of the people I’m associated with are like that. Jack Nicholson. Harrison. They don’t fit into any mold.”

Her film breakthrough came with Richard Lester’s infidelity drama petulia With Julie Christie and George C. Scott, which came out in 1968. “After that, work started coming to me,” Ruiz said.

This included work for people such as John Houston.Fat City), Michelangelo Antonioni (Zabriskie Point), Monte Hellman (two lane blacktop) and Bob Rafelson (Five easy pieces,

Also read:‘Priscilla’ movie review: Sofia Coppola teeters between celebrity dreams and nightmares

Ruiz and Coppola would receive two Best Picture nominations in the same year The Godfather Part II And Conversation, Other films he made for Coppola include with one heart, Rumble Fish,” “The Cotton Club,” “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” and “Tetro.”

Coppola’s collaborators included family. Russo produced the late Eleanor Coppola’s Emmy-winning documentary “Hearts of Darkness,” about the making of “Apocalypse Now,” and was most notably credited with helping her make her 2016 film “Paris Can Wait.” Was proud.

He also had a hand in all of Sofia Coppola’s films, including The Virgin Suicides And lost in TranslationIntroducing him to actors like Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, Elle Fanning and Cailee Spaeny, who all star in his latest film Priscilla, Sometimes he would also suggest well-known people for roles, as with Colin Farrell. The Beguiled,