ROME, Italy (CelebrityAccess) Bernardo Bertolucci, 77, the film director best known for “The Last Emperor,” which won nine Oscars, and “Last Tango In Paris” and “The Contortionist,” died in Rome, Italy after a battle with cancer.
Bertolucci was known for his Italian cinema of the 1960s and 70s but made a successful transition to popular filmmaking with “The Last Emperor” in 1987, winning best director and best picture.
Bertolucci’s film career began as a film assistant with “Accattone” and directed his first film, “La Commare Seca (The Grim Reaper),” in 1962. His film “Last Tango In Paris” starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider caused an international stir. It was banned in several countries and brought charges of obscenity against Bertolucci.
“The Last Emperor,” the story of the last Emperor of China and one of the few to be filmed inside the Forbidden City oif Beijing, began a string of Western films for Bertolucci, including “The Sheltering Sky” with John Malkovich and Debra Winger, “Stealing Beauty” with Liv Tyler, and “Dreamers” with Eva Green.
He got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008 and awarded the Venice Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Lion in 2007. He won an honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2011.
