No details were immediately obtained about his death.
“Our hearts are heavy today as we mourn the deaths of the beloved director, DGA leader and my friend Michael Apted. His legacy will be woven forever into the fabric of cinema and our guild,” he said. Thomas Schlamme, president of DGA.
“A fearless visionary as director and leader of the incomparable guild, Michael saw the trajectory of things when others did not, and we were all the beneficiaries of his lifelong wisdom and dedication,” he said. Schlamme.
Born in 1941 in Aylesbury, England, Apted had a prolific job in television, film and documentaries.
He directed the 1980 film “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which won the Golden Globe for best film in the music and comedy category. Sissy Spacek won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the film.
Other notable works he directed include “Agatha,” “Gorky Park,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Nell” and “Enough.”
Apted directed the 1999 film “The World Is Not Enough,” which is part of the James Bond series, as well as the third installment of the film franchise “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
Apid’s most famous documentary work was the long series “Up”. Over the decades the lives of more than a dozen Britons were followed, starting with 14 seven-year-olds in the film “Seven Up!”
The following films were produced every seven years, reviewing how each of the children’s lives had changed as they entered adulthood and later into old age in the final production, “63 Up”.
In 2003, Apted was elected DGA president, until 2009. His six-year term was the longest for a DGA president since the 1960s.
Steven Soderbergh, director and co-founder of the Guild’s Committee of Independent Directors with Apted, said: “I spent countless hours literally two meters away from Michael and I loved every minute. Aside from his own remarkable work, he went giving to the DGA cannot be measured; he put all his ES into the guild and inspired us all to follow his example. We were lucky to have him and to know him. “
In 2009 he was named a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by Queen Elizabeth II for his work in the entertainment industries.
He is survived by his wife Paige and their three children.
CNN’s Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.