Joel Schumacher one of the most iconic directors of the eighties and nineties passed away at the age of 80 in his hometown New York city. An official statement read simply "Schumacher passed away quietly from cancer this morning after a year-long battle. He will be fondly remembered by his friends and collaborators,".

Joel Schumacher who started his career as a window dresser and later a costume designer for a couple of Woody Allen films made his debut as director in the coming of age brat pack film 'St. Elmo's Fire' that starred and made stars out of Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Mare Winningham.

He went on to to direct many memorable films including The Lost Boys (1987),Flatliners (1990) , A Time to Kill, Tigerland (2000) and Phone Booth (2003). The younger generation will perhaps remember him most for his two DC films 'Batman Forever' and 'Batman and Robin'.

Joel Schumacher believed in commercial films and always stated “A movie that’s in a movie theater that runs at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 and there’s no one in the audience when that movie runs — what’s the point?” . He was also openly gay and famously claimed to have had sex with twenty thousand men.