Oscar-winning writer and director of LA Confidential died on Tuesday at the age of 71, The Guardian reported. A report by The Variety said Hanson had retired recently because he was suffering from Alzheimer's. Police said he died of natural causes in his Hollywood Hills home.

A BBC report said, the writer started writing for the screen and directing in the early 1970s, but became popular in 1992 with The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. He is also famous for The River Wild with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon in 1994, and Wonder Boys with Tobey Maguire and Michael Douglas in 2000.

Hanson is best known for his screen adaptation of LA Confidential, based on James Ellroy's novel with the same name. The film also gave Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe his break in Hollywood with the character of detective Bud White. Crowe tweeted that he was "obviously distracted & upset" at the news.

Hanson had to leave the production of his last film, Chasing Mavericks, after complications that followed his heart surgery. His penultimate film, Too Big to Fail, was about an attempt to salvage the United States economy, which bagged two Emmy nominations.

While describing his career in an interview with The Guardian following his film In Her Shoes in 2015, Hanson said, "For me all good stories are about awareness. Self-awareness and lack of it, of how you get there and how you might fail to get there."