One of the most versatile filmmakers who ever lived, a director at home with hot-button subjects (“In the Heat of the Night,” “A Soldier’s Story”), musicals (“Fiddler on the Roof,” “Jesus Christ Superstar”), intimate dramas (“The Cincinnati Kid,” “Agnes of God”) and comedies big (“The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming”) and small (“Moonstruck,” “Send Me No Flowers”) has died.

Norman Jewison also made the cool Steven McQueen caper romance “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the scandalous “And Justice for All…” and the silly but biting “Other People’s Money.”

A Hollywood icon and “actor’s director” who brought Canadian wit, warmth and tolerance to many a movie, Jewison was 97.

Jewison’s film were famous for showcasing characters’ humanity — a Black Philly police detective stuck on a case in the segregated Deep South, Cold War Russian submariners accidentally aground off Massachusetts, a boxer framed by the cops for murder (“The Hurricane”), or a bunch of Italian Americans trying to make a love match marriage (“Moonstruck”) but running up against their fears and their families.

He turned many a hit play into a hit movie – “Agnes of God,” “Fiddler,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “A Soldier’s Story.” And he earned seven Oscar nominations — no wins — to show for it. But actors got nominations and Oscar wins acting for Jewison — Cher and Steiger and Dukakis.

This year’s Oscar telecast owes him a lot more than a mere “In Memorium” mention. He was honored with the Irving Thalberg Humanitarian Award by the Acat in 1998.

I remember chuckling when Spike Lee threw a fit that Jewison, one of the cinema’s great humanists, was prepping a Malcolm X screen biography. Lee nagged and shamed Jewison off the film that Lee eventually made, a near masterpiece. Judging from his stellar track record in films about race in America, Jewison wouldn’t have embarassed himself, either.

I think Jewison would appreciate the fact that his Associated press obit, linked above, was mostly written by the long gone entertainment reporter Bob Thomas. News organizations archive obituaries of the famous and infamous, and Jewison outlived pretty much anybody that wrote one, in advance, for him. That’s the best revenge. That, and his long, decorated resume.

Back when I collected film posters, a couple of Jewison ones were the first I got my hands on. The man made TV before he transitioned to movies and TV movies, and he only garnered 30 credits, coming along as he did after the studio “system” passed from the screen. But that resume stands up with anybody’s.

RIP, and well done.