Award-winning film producer Cynthia Hargrave, who produced Wes Anderson’s debut feature film, “Bottle Rocket,” passed away on June 9 from complications of systemic scleroderma. She was 64.
Hargrave was the first producer to leverage a Sundance Film Festival short film into a Hollywood studio feature with Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket” from 1993, starring Owen and Luke Wilson. In addition to producing the original short, she was a producer on the subsequent 1996 feature of the same name, now regarded as an indie classic.
“When Bob Wilson introduced me and his sons Owen, Luke, and Andrew to Kit Carson and Cynthia Hargrave thirty years ago, he introduced us to the pathway to the rest of our lives,” Anderson said in a statement. “We think of both of our old friends often and very fondly, and we send our condolences to all of Cynthia’s closest friends and family.”
Hargrave also executive produced Morgan J. Freeman’s 1997 debut feature, “Hurricane Streets,” which was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and was the first film to ever win three awards at the festival.
Other producing credits include Michael Rymer’s 2001 film “Perfume,” which featured an ensemble cast including Jeff Goldblum and Rita Wilson, and “Bullfighter,” which was the directorial debut of Danish filmmaker Rune Bendixen and starred Willem Dafoe, Olivier Martinez, Michelle Forbes and Jared Harris. “Bullfighter” also featured cameos from Guillermo del Toro and Robert Rodriguez.
Hargrave also served as a production consultant on feature films, most recently Roland Emmerich’s “Midway” and
Jon Avnet’s “Righteous Kill,” starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino.
Hargrave was a native of Los Angeles who graduated with a B.S. in business from California State University, Northridge. Her early work included a job as a tour accountant for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and she met screenwriter and actor L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) while working for entertainment business manager Stan Nugit. Hargrave and Carson married in New York City in 1988, and they worked together and remained married until Carson’s death in 2014.
Hargrave is survived by her companion of six years, Eddy Burnett.