Mike Stenson, the longtime president of Jerry Bruckheimer Films who helped bring five Pirates of the Caribbean features, three Bad Boys movies and Top Gun: Maverick to the big screen, has died. He was 65.
Stenson died at home on April 26, his family announced. No cause of death was revealed.
After eight years with Disney, the Boston native joined Bruckheimer Films as president of the company in 1998, and he supervised all aspects of development and production there for the next quarter-century through his retirement. At the helm of the operation, he spearheaded Bruckheimer’s plan to expand the company’s film production schedule, which resulted in several blockbusters at the box office.
“Mike was one of the most brilliant individuals I’ve ever known or worked with,” Bruckheimer said in a statement. “His sense of story and complete knowledge of film production from development through filming and beyond was just amazing.
“Mike’s relationships with talent on both sides of the camera was legendary. I can’t express enough how much I will miss him and what a huge loss this is to me, everyone who worked with Mike through the years, and of course, his family.”
Stenson served as a producer on Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and Bad Company (2002), then was an executive producer on films including Remember the Titans (2000), Coyote Ugly (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Pearl Harbor (2001), Veronica Guerin (2003), Kangaroo Jack (2003), King Arthur (2004), National Treasure (2004) and its 2006 sequel, Glory Road (2006), Déjà Vu (2006), Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), G-Force (2009), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010), The Lone Ranger (2013), Deliver Us From Evil (2014), 12 Strong (2018) and Gemini Man (2019).
Along the way, he worked on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Dead Man’s Chest (2006), At World’s End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011) and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017); Bad Boys II (2003), Bad Boys for Life (2020) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024); and, for his final film, Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
Born on April 29, 1960, in Boston and raised there, Stenson graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in economics and earned a master’s in business administration. In between, he began as a production assistant in New York and worked for two years in independent film and television as an assistant director and production manager before returning to Boston.
After completing business school, he moved to Los Angeles where he began at Walt Disney Studios in Special Projects for two years before moving into the production department at Hollywood Pictures as a creative executive.
Stenson was promoted to vice president and then executive vice president during his eight years with the company, overseeing development and production for Hollywood Pictures and Touchstone Pictures.
In addition to many Bruckheimer films, Stenson also developed several other movies and nurtured them through production, among them Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Rush Hour (1998) and Instinct (1999).
He had many offers to leave Disney before exiting to join Bruckheimer.
Survivors include his brothers, John (and his wife, Mary), Tom (Mary), Robert (Kristin), and his nieces and nephews, Kaitlin, Christopher, Elizabeth, Jack, Grace, Aidan and Keira.
“As early as high school, Mike loved movies and knew he wanted to make them,” his brother Robert said. “While he achieved great personal success, he always shunned the spotlight, preferring to highlight the contributions of others. He remained down to earth with an intellect matched only by his generosity and rapier wit.”
A funeral mass will be held at 2 p.m. on May 20 at American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach, with a reception to follow.
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