James Foley, the filmmaker who helmed two of the Fifty Shades Of Grey sequels after launching his career directing music videos for Madonna, has died at 71.

While an official cause of death has not been announced since Foley’s death earlier this week, his representative said he died ‘peacefully in his sleep earlier this week’ at his home in LA after battling brain cancer for years.

Foley is also known for directing the film version of David Mamet’s classic stage play Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), which had an ensemble cast featuring. Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Alec Baldwin in a role that was written specially for the film version.

Although the film was a box office disappointment, it’s now regarded as a cult classic. 

Foley’s 1996 thriller Fear became a modest hit and helped launch the careers of its young stars: Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon. 

In the same year, he released the legal thriller The Chamber, which starred Gene Hackman and Chris O’Donnell, but his biggest successes were his final films, the sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, both of which were box office hits.

James Foley, the filmmaker who helmed two of the Fifty Shades Of Grey sequels after launching his career directing music videos for Madonna, has died at 71 following a battle with brain cancer

Foley’s biggest successes were his final films, the sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, both of which were box office hits; Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan pictured in Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Foley, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953 before moving to Staten Island as a child, attended the MFA program in film studies and production at the University of Southern California after finishing his undergraduate work at the State University of New York at Buffalo. 

After his student film gained the attention of the acclaimed filmmaker Hal Ashby, Foley used the attention to get his first feature theatrical directing job on the 1984 romantic drama Reckless, starring Daryl Hannah and Aidan Quinn.

The movie was a modest success, but it was reviled by critics, and its screenwriter — future Home Alone and Harry Potter director Chris Columbus — disowned the film and accused its director of ruining his screenplay.

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But his sophomore drama, At Close Range, attracted bigger stars in Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, and it attracted festival and awards attention, though it failed to earn back its budget.

Foley’s follow-up, 1987’s Who’s That Girl, paired him with its star, Madonna. 

Foley, who was reportedly the best man at her wedding to his previous collaborator Sean Penn, also directed music videos for three of her songs in the run-up to the film: Live To Tell, Papa Don’t Preach and True Blue.

The director’s greatest critical success was his film adaptation of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and Jack Lemmon won the festival’s Best Actor award for his work. 

Foley died following a battle with brain cancer, his representative told to TMZ

After working with her future husband, Foley directed Madonna in the feature Who’s That Girl? (pictured) and also directed three of her music videos in the run-up to it: Live To Tell, Papa Don’t Preach and True Blue

His 1996 thriller Fear (pictured) was a modest success and helped makes its leads Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon into stars

After a decade away directing television, Foley returned to films with two box office hits: 2017’s Fifty Shades Darker and its sequel Fifty Shades Freed; pictured on set with Dakota Johnson on Fifty Shades Freed in 2018

A North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival followed, and the movie now boasts a 95 percent fresh rating from critics surveyed by Rotten Tomatoes. 

However, audiences weren’t as intrigued by the film, which earned an Oscar nomination for Al Pacino, and it only grossed around $10.7 million against a $12.5 million budget. 

Foley collaborated again with Pacino in 1995 on the drama Two Bits.

After the success of his 1996 thriller Fear, Foley reunited with star Mark Wahlberg and Hong Kong icon Chow Yun-fat for the 1999 action film The Corruptor, but the film received mixed reviews and failed to make back its budget.

He had modest commercial success with his films in the 2000s, Confidence (2003) and Perfect Stranger (2007), but the latter film — a psychological thriller starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis — was lambasted by critics. 

Foley had occasionally directed for television, including a 1991 episode of Twin Peaks, and he returned during a decade-long break from filmmaking to shoot an episode of NBC’s horror-thriller Hannibal, as well as 12 episodes of Netflix’s House Of Cards, which reunited him with his Glengarry Glen Ross actor Kevin Spacey. 

Foley also directed an episode of Wayward Pines in 2015 and two episodes of Billions in 2016. 

He returned to filmmaking in 2017 to take over the Fifty Shades Of Grey series after the first film’s director, Sam Taylor-Johnson, left the franchise. 

Both Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018) received scathing reviews, but the Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan–starring sequels were box office hits, with each grossing more than $370 million against budgets of $55 million each. 

Foley is survived by his sister Eileen and Jo Ann, his brother Kevin and his his nephew Quinn.