‘8 Mile’ director, Oscar-winning writer Curtis Hanson dies

LOS ANGELES >> Curtis Hanson, who won a screen writing Oscar for “L.A. Confidential” and directed the psychological thriller “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” and Eminem’s tale of Detroit hip-hop “8 Mile,” has died. He was 71.

Paramedics declared Hanson dead at his Hollywood Hills home late Tuesday afternoon, Los Angeles police spokesman Tony Im said. Hanson died of natural causes, Im said, but he did not have further details.

Hanson’s partner, Rebecca Yeldham, said Wednesday his death was precipitated by a rare terminal condition called Frontotemporal Degeneration, which is different from Alzheimer’s. She said a feature of the disease is that sufferers are unaware they have the condition.

“We will be forever thankful that Curtis never suffered in the knowledge of his illness or prognosis,” Yeldham said in a statement released by Hanson’s publicist. “He died peacefully in his sleep.”

Eminem was among many who worked with Hanson paying tribute to him after his death.

“Curtis Hanson believed in me and our crazy idea to make a rap battle movie set in Detroit,” Eminem said in a statement. “He basically made me into an actor for ‘8 Mile.’ I’m lucky I got to know him.”

A native of Reno, Nevada, who grew up in Los Angeles, Hanson dropped out of high school to work as a photographer, writer and editor for the magazine Cinema. “It was, in a sense, my film school,” Hanson said in a 2002 interview with the Guardian.