May 25 - George Hickenlooper

Happy Birthday, George Hickenlooper! Born today in 1963 as George Loening Hickenlooper III, this American writer, producer, narrative and documentary filmmaker was the son of two parents in the arts. 

  

His mother, Barbara Jo Wenger, was a social worker and stage actress. His father, George Loening Hickenlooper, Jr., was a teacher and playwright.  

  

Hickenlooper III was also the grand nephew of English conductor Leopold Stokowski through marriage to his great aunt, American pianist Olga Samaroff (whose birth name was Lucy Mary Agnes Hickenlooper). Samaroff was the second wife of Stokowski. 

  

Hickenlooper later attended high school at St. Louis University High, where he was part of a group of teenage filmmakers he informally called the "Splicers". 

  

In 1986, after graduating from Yale University with a B.A. in History and Film Studies, Hickenlooper interned for American actor, producer and director Roger Corman ('The Masque of the Red Death'),  

  

Afterwards, Hickenlooper launched his directing career with the twenty-two-minute 1988 American television documentary short film 'Art, Acting, and the Suicide Chair: Dennis Hopper'. Hickenlooper and Hopper appeared as themselves. 

  

Three years later, Hickenlooper's first feature-length documentary, and the film for which he is best known for co-writing and co-directing, is the 1991 American documentary film 'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse'.  

  

The film was also co-directed by American documentary filmmaker, artist, and writer Eleanor Coppola and American screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Fax Bahr.  

  

'Hearts of Darkness' explored the making of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 American epic drama/adventure war film 'Apocalypse Now', completed twelve years earlier. 

  

In the late 1970s as the renegade Coppola struggled to complete an epic allegory of the Vietnam War, his wife, Eleanor, filmed his daily travails with a camera of her own. Documenting her husband's almost personal descent into madness.  

  

'Apocalypse Now' took 238 days to shoot, spread out over a sixteen month period. 'Hearts of Darkness' based on her footage, details the difficulties of the large production.  

  

This included weather-related delays in the Philippines to star Martin Sheen's heart attack while filming and Marlon Brando showing up overweight and unprepared, of which provided unprecedented behind-the-scenes clips of one of Hollywood's most-acclaimed films. 

  

'Hearts of Darkness' won several awards, including the National Board of Review award for "Best Documentary", an American Cinema Editors award for "Best Edited Documentary" and two Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awards for "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Directing".  

  

It also won "Outstanding Individual Achievement – Informational Programming – Picture Editing", and the International Documentary Association award. Hickenlooper himself won an Emmy for direction. 

  

In addition to his films, Hickenlooper later authored the 1991 book Reel Conversations: Candid Interviews With Film's Foremost Directors and Critics. 

  

Hickenlooper's cousin, John Hickenlooper, made a cameo appearance as a fictional senator in George's 2010 American drama/docudrama film 'Casino Jack'. John was the mayor of Denver at the time, and was the 42nd Governor of Colorado from 2011–2019. 

  

Hickenlooper later passed in his sleep that same year in Denver, Colorado on October 29, 2010. 

Despite initial reports that Hickenlooper had suffered a heart attack, the coroner ruled that his death was the result of accidental painkiller overdose, combining oxymorphone with alcohol. 

Sleep apnea and a "moderately enlarged heart" had also been contributing factors. Hickenlooper was 47. 

  

He is survived by his wife Suzanne, son Charles, a younger brother and his mother and father. 

  

Hickenlooper had been active from 1988–2010. 

  

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