Neal Jimenez, River's Edge and The Waterdance screenwriter, dies at 62

Neal Jimenez, the award-winning screenwriter and director whose films included the gritty cult classic River's Edge and the semi-autobiographical drama The Waterdance, died of heart failure Dec. 11. He was 62.

Jimenez's family confirmed his death in a news release provided to EW on Friday.

A native of Sacramento, Calif., Jimenez began his writing career at 17 with a weekly column in a local newspaper, and he contributed to outlets including L.A. Weekly and California Magazine while studying at Santa Clara University. He later transferred to the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where he wrote the script for River's Edge as part of a film class.

Directed by Tim Hunter and starring Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, and Crispin Glover, the film won Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the 1988 Independent Spirit Awards and launched Jimenez's screenwriting career. It has come to be regarded as a classic portrait of disaffected youth.

Jimenez's close friend and collaborator Michael Steinberg said in a statement, "His writing voice is seductive, powerful, and wholly unique. Like a complex minor chord with a range that could move in any direction. Dark, hilarious, romantic, political, gritty, fantastical, poetic. In the 40 years since meeting Neal, I've worked with dozens of big names and huge talents. But only a handful of true, genius-level artists. Jimenez, like Tarantino, and the Farrelly Brothers, had a voice strong enough to bend cinema."

After sustaining a spinal cord injury during a hike in 1984, Jimenez used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He drew on his personal experience as the inspiration for the 1992 drama The Waterdance, which he co-directed with Steinberg. The critically acclaimed film tells the story of a young writer who becomes paraplegic after a climbing accident, detailing his difficult and emotional recovery process. It won Best First Feature and Best Screenplay at the 1993 Spirit Awards, as well as the Audience Award and Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

In an email to EW, Steinberg looked back on making The Waterdance with Jimenez. "It took years to get the film going but by the time we finally did, we'd been over everything a million times, so it was just a peak experience making it," he said. "Best friends, UCLA film geeks, in total sync, making a movie that was, clearly, an important piece, and incredibly personal. What made it work, though, is we felt protected because the mighty Gale Anne Hurd was backing us, with the same vision, refusing to let anything stop The Waterdance from getting made in exactly the way we wanted to make it."

According to Steinberg, Jimenez was one of the most sought-after script doctors in Hollywood for more than a decade. He also wrote the films Where the River Runs Black, For the Boys, The Dark Wind, Sleep With Me, and Hideaway.

Eric Stoltz, who played the lead role in The Waterdance, said in a statement, "Neal Jimenez was a funny, talented, and complex ('but adorable!', I can hear him say) writer and director, and I will miss his unique voice." He added, "It goes without saying — though Neal would require I do — that our industry has lost one of the most deeply gifted and unconventional voices of the independent film movement."

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