Filmmaker Richard Glatzer, the co-writer and co-director of Still Alice, died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 63.
On the night actress Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her work in the film about a woman with Alzheimer's, Glatzer watched from his hospital room.
NPR's Ina Jaffe, who is reporting on Glatzer's death for our Newscast unit, says Glatzer told her a few weeks earlier that he almost didn't want to adapt the book on which Still Alice is based because it cut too close to the bone.
"But once I finished it, I felt determined to make Still Alice into a movie," he said, speaking through his iPad. "It really resonated with me."
Glatzer is survived by his husband, Wash Westmoreland, who co-wrote and co-directed Still Alice. They are also known for their 2006 film Quinceanera, which won the grand jury prize at Sundance.
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