Assistant Director Adam Somner Dies 57

Adam Somner, an award-winning assistant director, producer and longtime collaborator of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, has died. He was 57.

Somner died Wednesday of anaplastic thyroid cancer, a family spokesperson announced.

Some of the movies Somner worked on with Spielberg throughout his career were West Side Story, Lincoln, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ready Player One, Bridge of Spies and Munich.

Somner earned an Oscar nomination for his work on 2021’s Licorice Pizza and received a DGA Award for outstanding directorial achievement in a feature for 2015’s The Revenant.

“The job title ‘assistant director’ is insufficient 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,” Spielberg wrote in a tribute. “He worked as AD and producer, and he performed both of those tasks with equal measures of devotion. He loved making movies. He loved being on the set. It was his gridiron. He was a cheerleader and ball carrier, and at times I couldn’t tell if he was following my lead or I was following his.”

The filmmaker continued: “He made everyone who joined the crew feel like they were part of the family. He was a uniter, and when things weren’t going according to plan, his English working class wit and humor could smooth out the problem through his under-the-breath cursing, laughter and the backup plan he always seemed to have standing by. He was an icon in his field and an inspiration to anyone who wants a career in the mounting of productions — with the full recognition that it is as creative as it is organizational. Going back to work without Adam will never be the same.”

Scorsese shared in a statement: “Adam Somner had an extraordinary artistry when it came to organizing and orchestrating movement in the frame. He embodied and practiced all of it.”