Ted Demme

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Ted Demme (October 26, 1963 – January 13, 2002), born in New York, New York, was an American film director and producer. He was the nephew of movie producer and director Jonathan Demme. His career had modest beginnings — starting as a production assistant at MTV, he later created the cable network's seminal hip-hop show Yo! MTV Raps and directed other projects for them, including the infamous black-and-white rants starring then-unknown chain-smoking comedian Denis Leary. His best known films were The Ref, starring Leary and a then-unknown Kevin Spacey, and Blow which featured Johnny Depp as a high-profile drug dealer during the 1970s.

Over the course of his career, he established a group of actors that he chose to work with on more than one occasion. The most frequently used of these was Denis Leary, who he directed as a lead or star in No Cure for Cancer, The Ref, Denis Leary: Lock 'N Load, and Monument Ave. Leary also worked as producer on the film Blow. Other actors he frequently used included :

Noah Emmerich in Beautiful Girls, Monument Ave., Life, and (a cut scene in) Blow,
Max Perlich in Beautiful Girls and Blow, and
Adam LeFevre in The Ref and Beautiful Girls.

On January 13, 2002, while playing a game of basketball, Demme collapsed and died of a heart attack which may have been related to cocaine later found in his system during an autopsy. After his death, his wife, Amanda Scheer Demme, opened “celebrity” bars in Hollywood, including "Teddy's" at the Roosevelt Hotel — not named after her late husband, but rather the former president.

Friend Kevin Spacey tipped a glass to his late friend at the 59th Golden Globe Awards on January 20, 2002 to a full house of film and television professionals, in tribute to Demme.

Selected filmography: