Walter Mirisch

Walter Mirisch, one of the most independent-minded and successful producers of the New Hollywood era — a prolific and discerning executive who oversaw such enduring classics as Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, West Side Story, and In the Heat of the Night — died of natural causes on Friday, February 24, according to a statement released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was 101 years old.

Beginning in 1952 when the Cecil B.  deMille Award was presented to its namesake visionary director, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has awarded its most prestigious prize 66 times.