More than 25 years after it first came to the big screen, few film fans are unfamiliar with Anthony Hopkins’s chilling stare as he gazed at Jodie Foster through the thick glass wall in The Silence of the Lambs.

The 1991 thriller spelled an Academy Award for director Jonathan Demme, securing his name in film-making history. The film became only the third film in history to win the top five Academy Awards: best picture, actor, actress, director and adapted screenplay.

Demme died on Wednesday aged 73 following a battle with oesophageal cancer. He was married to Joanne Howard and had three children. Kicking off his career with dark action drama Caged Heat in 1974, Demme continued his work right up to this year, putting his name to TV series Shots Fired.

Demme’s five-decade career saw him work with the likes of Anne Hathaway, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. He became best known for hits such as Rachel Getting Married (2008), The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Philadelphia (1993), as well as the Hannibal Lecter horror that scored him more than seven prestigious industry awards.

Demme was also a familiar face on-screen, appearing on US favourites such as Saturday Night Live and The Oprah Winfrey Show and in 2013 began a stint working on hit series The Killing.

His interest in music featured throughout his career as he staked his claim in the world of concert film-making, an experience that saw him collaborate with Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads and Justin Timberlake last year.

The director said his work on Justin Timberlake and The Tennessee Kids was still teaching him new tricks.

Years after vowing never to focus on the audience when recording concerts, he told a Billboard interview in December: “Justin has this particular relationship with the audience and the audience in this film became kind of a character, so oddly I, who never like to film audiences, wind up with a new film that has a lot the audience in it. I’m thrilled by that dimension. Keep learning, baby.”