Jill Gurr, ‘Menace II Society’ Script Supervisor and Community Activist, Dies at 71
Jill Gurr, a veteran script supervisor who founded the nonprofit Create Now organization that pairs mentors in the entertainment industry with at-risk youngsters, has died. She was 71.
Gurr died Jan. 13 in her sleep in her Hollywood apartment of an unknown cause, Brandon Dean Johnson, CEO of Create Now, told The Hollywood Reporter.
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As a script supervisor for more than two decades starting in the early 1980s, Gurr worked on films and TV shows including Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Menace II Society (1993) and the 1997-98 syndicated series Conan the Adventurer.
She also adapted a murder mystery by James Hadley Chase for Rigged (1986), starring George Kennedy, and wrote a 1988 installment of PBS’ The Immortals that featured Ed Asner as Socrates. She had three books published as well.
Born on Feb. 12, 1950, Gurr was fluent in Spanish, French and Italian. She graduated from Boston University with a degree in broadcasting and film, then traveled around the world.
She said her life changed while she worked for directors Albert and Allen Hughes on Menace II Society, filmed around the time of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
At Optimist Youth Homes in Highland Park, Gurr taught a screenwriting workshop to 30 incarcerated teenage boys, and many them learned how to read and write through her classes. She then led a screenwriting workshop at another juvenile detention facility.
With a donation of $5,000 from screenwriter Leslie Stevens, creator of TV’s The Outer Limits, she launched Write Now in October 1996. The organization, renamed Create Now two years later, has been expanded to include music, dance, culinary arts and fashion.
“Even though Jill is no longer with us, we are committed and even more focused on preserving her legacy and building on her vision to help underserved communities through the arts,” Create Now said in a statement.
Survivors include her sister, Michelle, and nephew, Devan. Donations in her memory can be made to Create Now.
