Norman Jewison, Director of 'In the Heat of the Night' & 'Moonstruck,' Dies at 97

Norman Jewison, the legendary director of such films as "In the Heat of the Night," "Fiddler on the Roof," "Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Moonstruck," has died at 97, THR reports.

The outlet confirms with the Canadian helmer's publicist, Jeff Sanderson, that he died at his home on Saturday.

Jewison was a seven-time Oscar nominee who — incredibly — never took home the gold. Instead, he was given the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999 for his humanitarian work.

Born July 21, 1926, in Toronto, the WWII vet became interested in the performing art while in college in the '40s. He lived in London for a time, where he worked in children's TV at the dawn of the medium for the BBC. Moving back to Canada, he was one of the inaugural group of directors (as an assistant) when CBC Television launched in 1952.

Lured to NYC by NBC in the late '50s, he directed such series as "Your Hit Parade," which led to his work on high-profile specials for everyone from Harry Belafonte to Judy Garland's 1961 comeback special.

Jewison's first film was at the behest of Golden Age star Tony Curtis — "40 Pounds of Trouble" (1962).

He directed Doris Day in "The Thrill of It All" (1963) and "Send Me No Flowers" (1964), but first received acclaim with his "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), starring Steve McQueen.

On a roll, he directed "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming" the following year, his first of five films to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture.

Perhaps his most famous and acclaimed film, "In the Heat of the Night" (1967), came next. The drama, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, explored racism in the South, a subject close to Jewison's heart after he witnessed it firsthand during his service years. It won five Oscars, including Best Picture.

In 2011, Jewison said he was getting on a bus in Tennessee when he was mortified to experience racism in action. “The bus driver looked at me. He said, ‘Can’t you read the sign?’ And there was a little sign, made of tin, swinging off a wire in the center of the bus and it said, ‘Colored people to the rear.’ And I turned around and I saw two or three Black citizens sitting around me, and… a few white people sitting way at the top of the bus. And I didn’t know what to do, I was just embarrassed. So I just got off the bus and he left me there."

He attended Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral the same year "In the Heat of the Night" took home a slew of Oscars.

His other films included "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968), "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971), "Jesus Christ Superstar" (1973), "Rollerball" (1975), "F.I.S.T." (1978), "...And Justice for All" (1979), "A Soldier's Story" (1984), and "Agnes of God" (1985).

With the 1987 Cher vehicle "Moonstruck," Jewison enjoyed a renewed success, but the Oscar continued to elude him.

His final films were "In Country" (1989), "Other People's Money" (1991), "Only You" (1994), "Bogus" (1995), "The Hurricane" (1999), and 2003's "The Statement."

Jewison produced the 1981 Oscars, and was Emmy-nominated for "Dinner with Friends" (2001).