George Armitage, the director known for Miami Blues and Grosse Pointe Blank has died aged 82.

Armitage passed away last Saturday, surrounded by his family, including his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, his niece confirmed to TMZ.

His cause of death has not been revealed.

After majoring in political science and economics at UCLA, Armitage found himself breaking into the film industry, working closely with B-movie producer Roger Corman at New World Pictures.

He wrote and directed MGM’s Hit Man (1972) and Vigilante Force (1976), both of which were produced by Corman’s brother, Gene Corman.

Armitage directed the 1990 dark comedy Miami Blues, featuring Alec Baldwin in one of his most memorable early roles.

He eventually made his mark with the 1997 cult hit Grosse Pointe Blank, which follows a hitman navigating a high school reunion and stars John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd.

Grosse Pointe Blank was the first film he directed without also having a writing credit.

He told Film Comment in 2015: “I probably could have, but I didn’t want to, because I was afraid… There was an initial writer who did a great job, then John Cusack and Steve Pink, who now directs, and because the Writers Guild is insane with the way they handle the credits, I decided that if I threw my name into the mix, the percentage would drop for everybody and they’d get screwed out of it.”

Armitage continued: “But I did as much as anyone did in terms of writing. The script, when I met with John [Cusack] and the writers, was 132 pages. I said, ‘Look, I’m not doing anything over 100 pages.’ They said, ‘Okay,’ and they did a re-write, and it came back 150 pages.

“So I said, ‘Okay, you guys are fired,’ and I spent most of pre-production re-writing the screenplay, getting it down to 102 pages.

“Then we would improvise, and I noticed that some of the stuff I’d cut out was in the improvs, they were bringing back stuff that I’d cut out, but we had a good time with it.”

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Armitage relocated to Beverly Hills as a child and met his future wife, Sharon, at 15. Their marriage ended up lasting an incredible 62 years.

After learning of Armitage’s passing, his fans flocked to social media to pay tribute to a “legend”.

One wrote: “RIP to a legend. GROSSE POINTE BLANK and MIAMI BLUES are two of the high points of my entire life. Thanks for everything, George Armitage.”

A second said that his contributions to cinema will be “deeply missed” as another penned: “Just learned that the director of my all-time favorite film, GROSSE POINTE BLANK, has passed away. RIP George Armitage.”