Hunter Lurie, an up-and-coming film editor and the son of Hollywood writer-director Rod Lurie and Gretchen Lurie, the director of admissions at the Chandler School in Pasadena, has died. He was 27.
Lurie, who worked for Union Editorial as an assistant editor on commercials for numerous major accounts, died suddenly Monday at Mercy Health Hospital in Muskegon, Michigan, after going into cardiac arrest while attending the Electric Forest Festival in nearby Rothbury, his father said.
Born on Oct. 6, 1990, Hunter Lurie graduated in 2009 from Campbell Hall School in Studio City, where he was a member of the varsity cross-country team. Four years later, he graduated from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in television, radio and film.
Lurie went right to work in the Los Angeles office of Union Editorial, a commercial, music video, trailer and film editing company, and he advanced from vault manager to assistant editor.
He worked on commercials for the likes of Apple, Honda, Lexus, Adidas and Fox Sports but was proudest of his involvement with the Imaginary Friend Society campaign, a series of 20 animated short films that were created for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation to explore various topics related to cancer for kids facing that diagnosis. The campaign was awarded two gold lions at last month’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, having previously received an Annie Award nomination and other accolades.
Lurie also had small roles in his father’s films The Last Castle (2001), Straw Dogs (2011) and Killing Reagan (2016) and on the TV series Line of Fire and Hell on Wheels.
“Hunter’s death is a devastation for not just our family, but the entire universe Hunter lived in,” Rod Lurie told The Hollywood Reporter. “He was completely beloved and was the go-to encyclopedia for anything film-related. The commercial-editing world has lost one of its rising stars. We have lost the light of our lives.”
Survivors also include his sister, Paige Lurie; his step-mother, the novelist Kyra Davis; his uncle, the attorney and radio host Barak Lurie; his grandfather, the political cartoonist Ranan Lurie; and his grandmother, the luxury real estate agent Tamar Lurie. The family will hold a memorial service for Hunter this fall.
