Jonathan Kaplan, Director of ‘The Accused’ and ‘ER,’ Dies at 77

Jonathan Kaplan, Director of ‘The Accused’ and ‘ER,’ Dies at 77

Jonathan Kaplan, who directed Jodie Foster to a best actress Oscar in The Accused and received five Emmy nominations for his work as a helmer and producer on ER, has died. He was 77.

Kaplan died Friday at his home in Los Angeles after a battle with liver cancer, his daughter, Molly Kaplan, told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was a loving, supportive father,” she said.

Kaplan, whose parents both worked in show business and whose uncle was Oscar-winning actor Van Heflin, served an apprenticeship with famed B-movie producer Roger Corman and then directed the blaxploitation classic Truck Turner (1974), starring Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto and Nichelle Nichols.

Kaplan also guided Michelle Pfeiffer to a best actress Oscar nomination in the 1960s-set Love Field (1992), and his directing résumé included the Shirley Muldowney biopic Heart Like a Wheel (1983), starring Bonnie Bedelia and Beau Bridges; Bad Girls (1987), the distaff Western starring Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore; and the drama Immediate Family (1989), starring Masterson, Glenn Close and James Woods.

Based on a true story, The Accused (1988) starred Foster as Sarah Tobias, a waitress who is gang raped by three men at a local bar while onlookers cheered, then goes on to testify against them.

The legal drama, written by onetime newspaper reporter Tom Topor, tested poorly in advance screenings but was famously championed by Paramount heads Sherry Lansing and Stanley R. Jaffe, and Foster would receive the first of her two Oscars. After coming on board, Kaplan wisely identified that the second of the many script versions was the one that should be filmed.

Kaplan shared Emmy nominations for outstanding drama series with the likes of John Wells and Michael Crichton in 1999, 2000 and 2001 for producing ER, and he received directing noms in 2000 and ’01 as well. He helmed 40 episodes of the NBC series from 1997-2009.

Kaplan was born in Paris on Nov. 25, 1947. His father, Sol Kaplan, was a composer for film and TV (I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Star Trek), and his mother, Frances Heflin, portrayed Mona Kane Tyler (mother of Susan Lucci’s Erica Kane) on All My Children. (She was the sister of Van Heflin, known for his turns in Johnny Eager, Shane and Gunman’s Walk, to name just three of his great films.)

Kaplan lived in the Los Angeles area until 1954, when his dad moved the family to New York to work on Broadway after getting blacklisted in Hollywood following an appearance before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Kaplan, then 10, and his mom worked as understudies in the 1957-59 Broadway production of William Inge’s The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, directed by Elia Kazan, and he later did improvisational theater with Elaine May.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and then studied film at New York University, where he was tutored by Martin Scorsese, who recommended him to Corman. The producer hired him to direct Night Call Nurses (1972), followed by another sexploitation film, The Student Teachers (1973).

“Working with and for Roger Corman was great,” he said. “All I had to do was deliver the nudity, the thrills, the kinkiness, and the comedy, that had become Roger’s trademark — and I did.”

After helming the Jim Brown-starring, prison-set The Slams (1973) for Roger’s brother, producer Gene Corman, Kaplan was handed the reins to Truck Turner (1974) by producer Lawrence Gordon.

“When I was first given the project, the studio [American International Pictures] was thinking about using either Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Robert Mitchum in the lead role,” he recalled. “But then I got a call from Larry telling me that I would be making the picture with Isaac Hayes instead. I said, ‘That’s quite a switch from Robert Mitchum!’”

Kaplan followed with his first major-studio film, the neo-noir White Line Fever (1975), starring Jan-Michael Vincent and Kay Lenz at Columbia Pictures. (He also co-wrote that movie.)

Kaplan next was hired by Dino de Laurentiis to direct Mr. Billion (1977), which introduced Italian action star Terence Hill to U.S. audiences, but he would call that the biggest failure of his career. After helming the cult favorite Over the Edge (1979), starring Matt Dillon in his film debut, he retreated to TV to make telefilms.

In the ’80s, Kaplan directed music videos featuring Barbra Streisand (“Left in the Dark”), Rod Stewart (“Infatuation,” “Lost in You”) and John Cougar Mellencamp (“Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Small Town,” “Rain on the Scarecrow,” “Get a Leg Up”).

He also helmed Project X (1987), starring Matthew Broderick; Unlawful Entry (1992); starring Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta and Stowe; and his final feature, Brokedown Palace (1999), starring Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale.

He directed episodes of Fallen Angels, Law & Order: SVU, Crossing Jordan, Without a Trace, Brothers and Sisters and Witches of East End as well.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his sister, actress Nora Heflin, and his nieces, Hannah and Eliza. Another sister, actress Mady Kaplan, died three or four years ago.

Kaplan was married to Julie Selzer — casting director on The Accused and most of his projects in the ’80s — from 1987 until their 2001 divorce. “Everyone in the cast and crew just loved him,” she told THR. “He worked so fast, they all loved that.”