Bingham Ray, an icon in the independent film world who was hired as executive director of the San Francisco Film Society just over two months ago, died Monday, January 23 in a Utah hospital. Ray, 57, had suffered a couple of strokes while attending the Sundance Film Festival.
The news was a shocking blow to SFFS staffers and board members who had endured the illness and death last August of popular executive director Graham Leggat after a remarkably successful five-year tenure. For the second time in six months, the organization (the parent of the San Francisco International Film Festival) mourns the loss of its leader and must deal with the transition to a new chief executive.
Reached by phone at Sundance yesterday, a shaken director of programming Rachel Rosen said, “We’ve been emailing back and forth a lot, and we’re looking forward to being together again in a few days when those of us who are here get back in the city. There’s been a tremendous amount of support going back and forth going across the wires.”
Sundance is the kickoff to the film industry’s calendar, and many of Ray’s associates from New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere were at the festival when he was stricken.
“This is where all of his friends gathered every year, so everybody’s here,” said SFFS director of publicity Hilary Hart yesterday. “He’s been taken care of and surrounded by family and friends since he first felt poorly and someone suggested he get medical attention.”