Filmmaker Richard Glatzer, Who Wrote And Directed ‘Still Alice,’ Dies At 63

Filmmaker Richard Glatzer, the co-writer and co-director of Still Alice, died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 63.

On the night actress Julianne Moore won an Oscar for her work in the film about a woman with Alzheimer’s, Glatzer watched from his hospital room.

NPR’s Ina Jaffe, who is reporting on Glatzer’s death for our Newscast unit, says Glatzer told her a few weeks earlier that he almost didn’t want to adapt the book on which Still Alice is based because it cut too close to the bone.

“But once I finished it, I felt determined to make Still Alice into a movie,” he said, speaking through his iPad. “It really resonated with me.”

Glatzer is survived by his husband, Wash Westmoreland, who co-wrote and co-directed Still Alice. They are also known for their 2006 film Quinceanera, which won the grand jury prize at Sundance.

He is also survived by his sister Joan Kodner and her husband, David, his nieces and nephews, and his daughter, Ruby Smith.