Adam Somner, Beloved AD for Spielberg and Scorsese, Dies at 57

Adam Somner, an assistant director and producer who worked with such luminaries as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, died Wednesday at age 57.

The award-winning Briton lost his battle with anaplastic thyroid cancer, according to a press release shared with TheWrap by his PR agency. His other notable film collaborations included Paul Thomas Anderson on “Licorice Pizza” and “Phantom Thread” and Ridley Scott on “Gladiator”, “Hannibal” and “Black Hawk Down”.

Spielberg, who worked with Somner on 12 films including “War of the Worlds,” “Lincoln” and “West Side Story,” fondly remembered him as “an icon in his field,” saying, “Going back to work without Adam will never be the same.”

He added: “The job title ‘assistant director’ is inadequate to describe what Adam Somner was to me and the contribution he made to my films – just as my left arm is more than just an assistant to my right. He worked as AD and producer, and he did both of these tasks with equal devotion. He loved being on the set. He was a cheerleader and a ball bearer, and I couldn’t tell if he was following my lead, or I followed his.”

Scorsese wrote that although Somner was credited as AD and producer on three of his films, “his presence meant more to me and to the films than any credits could really indicate.”

The director praised Somner’s “discipline of a general on the battlefield” and “a unique ability to work as closely with me or with any director as two dancers doing a routine or two musicians bouncing off each other.”

Added Scorsese: “I would never have been able to do ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ or Killers of the Flower Moon without him, and we were in the middle of planning another project. He died way too soon, and I will miss him terribly. He loved ‘making pictures,’ as he put it. He was one of the best collaborators I could ask for, and I know my fellow directors would say the same.”

Anderson wrote, “Adam loved making movies more than anyone ever in the history of the movie business. It was his food and drink. He made everyone who worked with him feel at ease. He saw everything from every angle at once and had a backup plan for backup plan for backup plan.”

The “Phantom Thread” director added: “He moved mountains and trucks and people like he was moving a salt shaker across a table. It was glorious to watch him work. He knew how to make a movie better than anyone. His intuition and talent were second only to how deeply funny and loving he was. Most of all, and above all, he was generous.”

Anderson continued, “I would rank him in the Kobe Bryant, Mick Jagger, Winston Churchill category of legends. And that would be underselling it.”

Somner was nominated for an Academy Award for “Licorice Pizza” and won the DGA Feature Film Award for his work with Alenandro Inarritu on “The Revenant.”

He is survived by his wife, Carmen Ruiz de Huidobro, his children, Olivia and Bosco, and his brother, Mark Somner.

A DGA scholarship in Somner’s name will be established with donation information forthcoming.