‘The Harder They Come’ filmmaker dies

Perry Henzell battled cancer for seven years and died at 70

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updated 8:25 p.m. ET Nov. 30, 2006

Perry Henzell, a filmmaker whose reggae classic “The Harder They Come” helped introduce Jamaican pop culture to a global audience, died Thursday. He was 70.

Henzell, who had battled cancer for seven years, died at a relative’s home in the Jamaican farming parish of St. Elizabeth, according to his son, Jason Henzell.

“We’re just glad he went peacefully without any more pain,” his son said.

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Henzell’s death came one day before the Jamaican premiere of his new feature, “No Place Like Home,” set for the Flashpoint Film Festival in the resort town of Negril. Henzell shot the movie in the 1970s but production troubles kept it from reaching theaters until this year.

Born in 1936 in Port Maria, Jamaica, Henzell attended McGill University in Montreal and worked in advertising before turning to filmmaking in the early 1970s.

He directed and produced “The Harder They Come,” Jamaica’s first feature film, from 1970 to 1972. Shot on a shoestring budget, it became an international success, winning an award at the 1973 Venice Film Festival.

The film, starring Jimmy Cliff, was based on the life of Ivanhoe “Rhyghin” Martin, a notorious outlaw who terrorized sections of west Kingston during the late 1940s.

Cliff wrote four original songs for the soundtrack, which featured music from other reggae performers including Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker and became a worldwide top-seller.

In 1982, Henzell published his first novel, “Power Game,” a political thriller set in the Caribbean.