Cimino worked only sporadically in the years that followed "Heaven's Gate," and with no success. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cimino. Cimino's emerging career then took a U-turn with 1980's "Heaven's Gate," a Western starring Kris Kristofferson and Walken that was a critical and financial disaster. LOS ANGELES (AP) " Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director whose film "The Deer Hunter" became one of the great triumphs of Hollywood's 1970s heyday, and whose disastrous "Heaven's Gate" helped bring that era to a close, has died. "Critics were set up to hate 'Heaven's Gate.'

Source: New Zealand Herald July 03, 2016 04:30 UTC