J. Lee Thompson - Hollywood Films

Hollywood Films

Thompson would never reach the artistic heights of The Guns of Navarone or Cape Fear again, but he maintained a steady career in Hollywood through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s that is rarely seen. He retained his knack for working with dynamic actors, joining Yul Brynner in the Cossack epic Taras Bulba (1962) and the Mayan Indian epic Kings of the Sun (1963); Shirley MacLaine in What a Way to Go! (1964) and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965); and Deborah Kerr in the occultist Eye of the Devil (1967). Thompson also proved capable of working in different genres, including Western (Mackenna's Gold, 1969), espionage (The Chairman, 1969) and science fiction (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes). While in the U.S., he continued to dabble with British productions such as Return from the Ashes (1965) and Country Dance AKA Brotherly Love (1970).

In the late 1970s and 80s, Thompson's reputation declined but he was still known as an energetic presence on Hollywood sets. The remaining years of his career were spent mostly in low-budget exploitation films. One musical film foray (not his best genre) was Huckleberry Finn (1974) starring Jeff East and Paul Winfield. He became a favorite of action star Charles Bronson, pairing up in the Warner Bros. crime story St. Ives (1976), an unconventional western called The White Buffalo (1977), and a Casablanca spinoff, Caboblanco (1980). Their work at Cannon Films lasted throughout the 1980s with such pulp action titles as 10 to Midnight (1983), Murphy's Law (1986), Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), and Thompson's last film as a director, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989). Other titles included The Evil That Men Do (1984, through ITC Entertainment and Tri-Star Pictures), The Ambassador (1984), King Solomon's Mines (1985), and the Chuck Norris vehicle Firewalker (1986). Several of these films were edited by Thompson's son Peter.

After Kinjite, Thompson retired from direction but stayed active as a producer and occasional set technician. He died of congestive heart failure on August 30, 2002, at his vacation home in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada, aged 88.