Benjamin Melniker, a legendary Hollywood producer who helped bring Batman to the big screen, died Monday at the age of 104.
A former MGM executive, Melniker was involved in some of the biggest movies of all-time, such as Ben Hur, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Dr. Zhivago. However, after leaving that company, he teamed up with Michael E. Uslan in 1979 to buy the movie rights to the DC Comics character Batman. Their first movie, Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, was an incredible success – and since then, Melniker has been credited as a producer on every single Batman movie, both live-action and animated, all the way up to last year’s Justice League.
Uslan announced the news on his Facebook.