James Foley

American director, producer and screenplay writer Born: 28th December 1953 Bay Bridge, Brooklyn, New York, USA Died: 6th May 2025, Los Angeles, California, USA Brother of Jerry Foley (1956—2024). Foley extensively collaborated with Madonna in the mid-1980s, often under the alias "Peter Percher" directing four music videos for the singer, as well as her second feature film. Foley also worked on music videos for other artists, including 10480 (1990) by Deep Purple, and Marky Mark's 96486 (1996). Foley debuted in 1984 with Reckless, a romantic drama for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and MGM/UA Entertainment starring Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah. The movie was written by Chris Columbus, another débutant. (Allegedly, Columbus and Foley had a major fallout during the production.) Even though the movie was only a modest commercial success, Warner Bros. Pictures approached Foley with an offer to direct Prince's first film. James, however, had no interest and passed the script to Albert Magnoli, his editor on "Reckless," and the subsequent director of 388665. In 1985, Foley began collaborating with Madonna; they were close personal friends though her then partner Sean Penn to whom he served as the best man at their wedding. Initially, Foley was Danny Kleinman's assistant and co-director, working on the opening sequences for the "65456" music video and the 34921 concert film. On her third album, James Foley directed videos for three singles, 34663, 34801, and 66319. In 1986, the same year, Foley premiered a neo-noir crime drama, At Close Range featuring Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, Mary Stuart Masterson, Crispin Glover, and Chris Penn. Despite failing at the box office, the film was a critical success, earning Foley a prestigious "Golden Bear" nomination at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1987, he directed Madonna's "screwball" comedy Who's That Girl, where she co-starred with Griffin Dunne, along with 34888 music video for her soundtrack single. Madonna's debut action/adventure comedy, 801983, produced in 1986 by George Harrison's studio HandMade Films, bombed at the box office. Nevertheless, Madonna managed to convince Warner Bros. to bankroll her second attempt. The film was a disastrous failure, barely grossing $7.3 million in the domestic box office, against a $20-million budget, and was slayed by the critics — including five anti-nominations at the 8th Golden Raspberry Awards; James Foley earned the "Worst Director." In 1992, Foley worked on Glengarry Glen Ross for New Line Cinema, written by David Mamet as an adaption of his critically-acclaimed theatrical play. Starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, and Jonathan Pryce, the movie was a commercial flop but praised by the critics. Foley received a "Golden Lion" nomination at the Venice Film Festival. In 1996, he directed a psychological thriller, Fear, for Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures, written by Christopher Crowe and starring the "teen idols" duo of Mark Wahlberg with Reese Witherspoon. In his final years, James Foley worked on several acclaimed TV series, most notably directing 12 episodes of Beau Willimon's political thriller 768034 (2013–18) on Netflix, starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Foley's last feature-length films were Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018) for Universal Pictures, based on the eponymous book trilogy by E. L. James and starring Jamie Dornan with Dakota Johnson. Although commercially successful, the entire series was frowned upon by the film community for its blatantly exploitative nature and lack of implicit artistic value. Foley made a comeback at the infamous Razzie Awards, nominated as the "Worst Director" for both Fifty Shades flicks.