James Cameron honoured the memory of Jon Landau, the producer behind ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ who passed away at the age of 63 in Los Angeles on Friday.

Jon succumbed to cancer after a 16-month-long fight, as confirmed by a representative from Disney.

“The Avatar family grieves the loss of our friend and leader, Jon Landau,” he began in a statement. “His zany humor, personal magnetism, great generosity of spirit and fierce will have held the center of our Avatar universe for almost two decades.

“His legacy is not just the films he produced, but the personal example he set — indomitable, caring, inclusive, tireless, insightful and utterly unique.

He created exceptional films not through authority, but through sharing warmth and the delight of filmmaking.

He motivated us to always strive for excellence. “I have lost a beloved friend and my most trusted collaborator of 31 years. A piece of myself has been taken away,” Cameron expressed.

Landau passed away on Friday following a 16-month fight with cancer at the age of 63.

Having previously served as EVP of Feature Productions at 20th Century Fox, Landau teamed up with Cameron as COO of his newly established Lightstorm Entertainment, where they achieved box office success with Titanic (1997) and later with Avatar (2009).

Last February, Landau recounted his first collaboration with Cameron when he was at Fox and assigned to the director’s 1994 action comedy ‘True Lies’. “I think Jim was a little skeptical. He said, ‘So I understand we’re gonna get to be pretty good friends. Or maybe not,’” he said.

Although Landau stated that they worked “on opposite sides of the fence” on that film, Cameron later approached him with the script for Titanic after leaving Fox, and Landau “fell in love” with the film.

“We did that sort of as a one-off,” Landau recalled of joining Lightstorm. “And that worked, the relationship worked, and I think we built it up,” reported Deadline.

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