'Silence Of The Lambs' Director Jonathan Demme Dead At 73

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Jonathan Demme, the Academy Award-winning director of "The Silence Of The Lambs", died Wednesday, according to reports. He was 73.

Demme's publicist told The Hollywood Reporter the New York-born filmmaker died at his Manhattan apartment of complications linked to esophageal cancer.

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He won Best Director in 1991 for "Lambs", which earned five Oscars in all. Demme's next film, 1993's "Philadelphia", gave Tom Hanks his first Oscar and helped catapult AIDS/HIV into the national spotlight.

Demme's other credits include the Michelle Pfeiffer comedy "Married to the Mob" and the 1984 Talking Heads concert film "Stop Making Sense", which is hailed by critics as one of the greatest rock documentaries ever.