James Foley, the director known for Fifty Shades of Grey, has passed away at the age of 71. He was also renowned for his work on Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, as well as Who's That Girl, starring Madonna. Foley's death, confirmed on Thursday (May 8), followed a prolonged battle with brain cancer. His publicist shared with The Hollywood Reporter that James "died peacefully in his sleep earlier this week" after struggling with the illness for several years.

In addition to his film career, Foley worked with Madonna on her music videos for Live to Tell, Papa Don't Preach, and True Blue under the name Peter Percher. He also served as best man at her 1985 wedding to Sean Penn. Foley, who graduated from New York University and USC in Los Angeles, kickstarted his career thanks to a serendipitous encounter. He recalled to Film Freak Central: "I was very lucky. In my final year of film school, I shared a house with a friend.

At a film school party, where we were projecting student films while getting stoned, a woman came who was being pursued by Hal Ashby. Hal called her and asked to come to the party, and when he walked in, my film was on the wall. I'll never know if he was just being polite, but he told me he liked it and that he was starting a company to produce other films. He asked me if I wanted to write something and direct it."