Gary Winick

A leading figure in digital feature production in the late 1990s and early 21st century, Gary Winick was the guiding force behind such critical hits as "Personal Velocity" (2002), "Pieces of April" (2003) and "Starting Out in the Evening" (2007), while directing such popular crowd pleasers as "13 Going on 30" (2004) and "Letters to Juliet" (2010). He built his reputation on micro-budget films like "Sweet Nothing" (2005) and "The Tic Code" (1999), which performed admirably on the festival circuit. The launch of his all-digital company InDigEnt yielded the aforementioned films, as well as Oscar nominations and awards from the Sundance Film Festival, among others. The ebullient hit "13 Going on 30" launched his career as a Hollywood director with a knack for female-friendly comedies; a string of successful titles, including "Charlotte's Web" (2006) and "Letters to Juliet" (2010), seemed to indicate that he would remain master of the mainstream and indie film worlds for some time. Unfortunately, Winick's life and career were cut tragically short in 2011, when the director-producer died of complications from brain cancer. Gary Winick was 49 years old.