Director, producer and screenwriter Michael Laughlin died on October 20th at the age of 82
Michael Laughlin, director, producer, and screenwriter, died on October 20th at the age of 82. His credits include Two-Lane Blacktop, Town & Country, and Strange Behavior.
Laughlin died in his Honolulu, Hawaii, home due to complications from Covid-19.
Michael Stoddard Laughlin grew up in Minonk, Illinois, and was born in 1938. Laughlin attended Stanford University and received his bachelor’s degree from Principia College in 1960.
He moved to London shortly after, where he began his career as a film producer. He worked on films including The Whispers and Michael Sarne’s Joanna from 1968. Laughlin married Leslie Caron, a French actress, during his time in Europe. In 1980, they divorced.
In the 1970s, Laughlin assisted in the production of Monte Hellman’s cult masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop, which starred James Taylor. The film was chosen for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2012 as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.”
Strange Behaviors, a horror film starring Louise Fletcher and Michael Murphy, Strange Invaders, a science fiction mystery starring Nancy Allen and Michael Lerner, and Mesmerized, a 1985 thriller starring Jodie Foster and John Lithgow, are among his other credits.
In 2001, Laughlin co-wrote the rom-com Town & Country, directed by Peter Chelsom and starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn.
Christopher Hall, Jennifer Caron Hall, and Lulu Sylbert, Laughlin’s three stepchildren, survive him.