Oscar-winning producer Jake Eberts dies

Jake Eberts, the Canadian independent producer and founder of Britain's Goldcrest Films, which revived the British cinema industry in the 1980s with a string of Oscar-winning movies, including "Gandhi" and "Chariots of Fire," died Thursday in Montreal. He was 71.

He was diagnosed in late 2010 with uveal melanoma, a rare cancer of the eye, which recently spread to his liver.

During four decades in the film business, Eberts financed or produced more than 50 films, including four that won Academy Awards for best picture: "Chariots of Fire" (1981), "Gandhi" (1982), "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989) and "Dances With Wolves" (1990).

Eberts was a struggling investment banker in 1974 when he was approached to arrange financing for an animated feature about a group of beleaguered rabbits. "Watership Down" (1978) became a box-office and critical success and hooked Eberts on the movie business.

He formed Goldcrest Films in 1976 with backing from the publishing giant Pearson. Goldcrest's first major success was "Chariots of Fire," the drama about two runners in the 1924 Olympics that was nominated for seven Oscars and won four.

In succession, Goldcrest produced "Gandhi," and "The Killing Fields," a gripping story about Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge told from the perspective of two journalists.