Henry Jaglom Obituary

Henry Jaglom, the fiercely independent filmmaker whose intimate, actor-driven dramas made him a singular voice outside the Hollywood mainstream, died September 22, 2025, at his home in Santa Monica, California. He was 87.

Born in London on January 26, 1938, Mr. Jaglom moved to New York as a child and later studied at the University of Pennsylvania. He trained at the Actors Studio before transitioning from acting to directing, a shift that set the course for a five-decade career of idiosyncratic, personal cinema.

His first feature, "A Safe Place" (1971), starred Tuesday Weld and Jack Nicholson and featured Orson Welles, who became both collaborator and close friend. Jaglom followed with "Tracks" (1976), "Sitting Ducks" (1980), "Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?" (1983), and "Always" (1985), honing a loose, improvisational style that put conversation and character first.

Across the 1980s and '90s, he wrote and directed a run of films-"New Year's Day" (1989), "Eating" (1990), "Venice/Venice" (1992), "Last Summer in the Hamptons" (1995) and "Déjà Vu" (1997)-that explored relationships, artistic communities and the tangled boundary between life and performance. He often worked with ensembles drawn from his circle of actors and friends.

Jaglom's connection to Welles shaped his legacy beyond the screen. Their years of lunches in Los Angeles produced the 2013 book "My Lunches with Orson," edited by Peter Biskind, a candid portrait of the legendary director and a testament to their friendship.

He kept creating into the 2000s and 2010s with projects including "Festival in Cannes" (2001), "Going Shopping" (2005) and "The M Word" (2014), while continuing to write for the stage. Throughout, he remained committed to fiercely personal filmmaking, frequently financing projects independently to protect his creative freedom.

By Legacy News Staff

(Image: Mark Mainz/Getty Images for AFI)