Ted Demme, the film director who most recently made Blow starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, died tragically of a heart attack yesterday aged 37.

Demme, the nephew of Oscar-winning film-maker Jonathan Demme, had forged a reputation as a film-loving commentator on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) as well as director of such films as Imagine Entertainment's Life starring Eddie Murphy, Monument Avenue with Denis Leary and Billy Crudup, Beautiful Girls with Timothy Hutton and Uma Thurman and The Ref for Disney and Simpson/Bruckheimer Productions.

He had been preparing to direct Nautica, a suspense thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Heath Ledger for Escape Artists and Columbia Pictures.