Stuart Cornfeld, Ben Stiller collaborator, dies at 67

Los Angeles — Stuart Cornfeld, who produced “Zoolander,” “Dodgeball” and “Tropic Thunder” with Ben Stiller, died on June 26 of cancer. He was 67.

The news was confirmed by his friend, actress Liliana Greenfield-Sanders, and others on social media. “He was the funniest person on the planet,” she wrote. “I will miss him terribly.”

The Los Angeles native was born in 1952 and graduated from the American Film Institute in 1975. After working with Anne Bancroft on two projects at AFI, he was introduced to her husband, Mel Brooks, and became his assistant on the 1977 film “High Anxiety.”

Cornfeld went on to work with the couple on several more projects and got his first executive producing credit on Brooks’ 1980 film “The Elephant Man.”

In the early days of his career, he produced “National Lampoon’s European Vacation” ( 1985), David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” (1986), Steven Soderbergh’s “Kafka” ( 1991) and Guillermo Del Toro’s “Mimic” (1997). He also had bit parts in several movies, including “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” in which he played the Pirate King of Captain Hook Fish ‘n Chips.

In 1999 he teamed with Stiller to launch Red Hour Films, under which they enjoyed success with the comedies “Zoolander” ( 2001), “Duplex” ( 2003), “Starsky & Hutch” ( 2004), “Dodgeball” (2004), “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny” ( 2006), “Blades of Glory” (2007) and “Tropic Thunder” ( 2008), which earned an Academy Award nomination for Robert Downey Jr. and won best comedy at the Broadcast Critics Film Awards and the Hollywood Film Awards.

“A really great person left the planet today,” Stiller said on Twitter. “Stuart Cornfeld ... was my friend, producing partner and creative confidant. He knew movies, made movies and loved movies. World = less better without him.”

Toward the end of his career, Cornfeld produced Jack Black’s 2017 film “The Polka King” and did some work in television. He was awarded the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal by AFI in 2013 and most recently produced the documentary “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” for Netflix.

He is survived by his ex-wife, Johanna Went, and sisters Lois and Ellen.