James Foley, a veteran director whose films included “Glengarry Glen Ross” and the “Fifty Shades of Grey” sequels, and who also worked on the hit television series “House of Cards,” died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 71.
The cause was brain cancer, Taylor Lomax of ID, the firm that represents Mr. Foley, said on Thursday.
Mr. Foley made his directorial debut with the 1984 film “Reckless,” a drama about a high school romance between a rebellious, motorcycle-driving football player and a cheerleader. In the decades that followed, he built a career directing movies, television shows and music videos, working with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Among his most celebrated works is the 1992 film adaptation of “Glengarry Glen Ross,” the play by David Mamet that won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1984. The movie, about real estate salesmen trying to make ends meet in a tough economy, starred Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin.
Mr. Foley also directed “Fifty Shades Darker” (2017) and “Fifty Shades Freed” (2018), the final two installments of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise. Those films were adapted from the second and third books of the E.L. James trilogy.
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Mr. Foley told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 that he was pleased that his career had not been pigeonholed.
