Expect the unexpected. Celebrated Hollywood screenwriter Kevin Jarre, who wrote such popular screenplays including 1985's RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II, 1989's Civil War drama GLORY (which won Denzel Washington his first Oscar in Best Supporting Actor), 1993's western movie TOMBSTONE (which starred Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer), 1997's Harrison Ford-Brad Pitt thriller THE DEVIL'S OWN, and 1999's THE MUMMY -- has died of heart failure on April 3 at his Santa Monica home.
Jarre is a history buff, in which he is particularly fond of Civil War. That labor of love became his source of inspiration for one of his most acclaimed screenplays he's ever written, which is none others than GLORY.
"I never thought I could interest anybody in it," Jarre told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. "A Civil War epic, about black people? But I'd got really attached to the story.... I'd end up in tears when I got through writing."
His unexpected death is nevertheless a total loss. As a remembrance, here is the trailer from GLORY.