The film industry was shocked to learn that veteran distribution executive Erik Lomis died unexpectedly on Wednesday at his home in Santa Monica, California at the age of 64. An outpouring of kind words and fond memories flowed across social media and in trade publications for the remainder of the week.

Lomis was currently the head of distribution at MGM where he was helping Amazon, the company’s new owner, take on the historic studio. He had worked at MGM earlier in his career, from 1993-2011, where he worked his way up to President of Worldwide Distribution, overseeing the release of such films as “Legally Blonde” (2001) and numerous James Bond movies including “GoldenEye” (1995), “The World Is Not Enough” (1999) and “Die Another Day” (2002).

He jumped over to The Weinstein Co. where he worked on titles that included “The Artist” (2011), “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), and “The Hateful Eight” (2015), before departing in 2016 to launch the distribution arm of Annapurna Pictures. Lomis came full circle when in 2019 he moved to United Artists releasing, a joint venture between MGM and Annapurna.

As someone who shepherded the careers of many executives who are now in senior leadership positions within the industry, and as a key fundraiser for charities such as the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation, Lomis was beloved around Hollywood, both personally and professionally.