Oscar-winner, former Keys resident dies

Jon Landau, the Oscar-winning movie producer and former Islamorada resident and philanthropist, died Friday, July 5, at the age of 63.

Landau’s family announced his death the following day. No cause of death was given.

Landau is credited with two of the highest-grossing films of all time, “Avatar” and “Titanic,” for which he won an Academy Award in 1997.

He and his wife, Julie, owned a home known as Bali Hai on Plantation Key’s Millionaires’ Row for 12 years and were active members of the Upper Keys community.

Landau told The Keys Citizen’s sister paper, The Florida Keys Free Press, in 2011 that he and Julie had loved the Keys since they first arrived in 1986, during the filming of “Making Mr. Right,” starring John Malkovich.

Several years later, while he was a producer for Twentieth Century Fox, the couple spent two months in the Middle and Lower keys during the filming of the 1994 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, “True Lies.” While the ocean, diving and fishing initially attracted the Landaus to the Keys, the whole package grabbed their attention.

“When I come here, I feel like I am out of the country,” Landau said in 2011. “If somebody didn’t tell me where I was, I feel like I could be in Costa Rica or Bora Bora or the Bahamas. Yet, I have all the amenities the United States has to offer, including a 3-D movie theater a mile and a half down the road.”

The couple said they loved the small-town charm and sense of community in Islamorada that is largely absent in Los Angeles and New York, from where both hail.

The couple quickly became enmeshed in their new community, hosting charitable events at their home, supporting Habitat for Humanity of the Upper Keys and the Bougainvillea Ball, which raises money for Mariners Hospital. They also created a Hurricane Irma repair fund in 2017 as well as a food fund for the Upper Keys during the pandemic. Landau also hosted visits by the Coral Shores High School film studies class in Hollywood.

They sold their Islamorada home in 2022 as production on two new films was to keep Landau in New Zealand for an extended period to complete “Avatar 2” and “Avatar 3.”

“Right now, the reality is that my work is keeping me out of the country for an extended period of time and to have that place that gives people as much joy as our home has been able to do, it’s silly to have it empty. Someone should enjoy it,” Landau told the Free Press in 2022.

The oceanfront home sold for $14 million shortly thereafter.