Andrew Gunn, Producer of "Freaky Friday" and "Sky High", Dies at 58
Andrew Gunn, the prolific producer behind a wave of early 2000s Disney comedies including Freaky Friday and Sky High, has died at 58. Gunn passed away at his home in Toronto after a 2024 diagnosis of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, his family announced.
Born in Toronto in 1967, Gunn graduated from the University of Western Ontario before moving to Los Angeles to earn a master’s degree from the USC Annenberg School. He began his career working for producer David Permut and later ran development for John Hughes’ Great Oaks Entertainment, contributing to family hits such as Flubber and the live-action 101 Dalmatians.
In 2001, Gunn launched Gunn Films and entered a prolific era under an exclusive first-look deal with Disney during the tenure of chairman Dick Cook and motion pictures president Nina Jacobson. His films blended heart, humor and high-concept spectacle, ranging from theme park adaptations like The Haunted Mansion and The Country Bears to star-driven originals including Bedtime Stories and College Road Trip.
His defining success came with Freaky Friday, which he personally pitched as a theatrical remake. After early casting setbacks, the film ultimately paired Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, a chemistry-driven decision that paid off at the box office and earned Curtis a Golden Globe nomination. Gunn later reunited with the duo for the 2025 sequel, a project that held special personal meaning as his children, Isabelle and Connor, worked on the production.
Throughout his career, Gunn championed rising talent both in front of and behind the camera. He developed the long-gestating adventure project Order of the Seven with director Michael Gracey, forging a creative partnership that endured long after the film was shelved. He also founded the Disney Writers Program in 2001, mentoring emerging screenwriters such as David Berenbaum and Matt Lopez, while nurturing assistants and executives who would go on to become industry leaders.
Colleagues remembered Gunn as driven yet deeply warm, a producer who balanced commercial instincts with creative optimism. Beneath his rugged exterior was, as one former collaborator described, “the softest, gooiest man on the inside.”
Gunn is survived by his wife, Jane Bellamy Gunn, his children, Isabelle and Connor, his mother, Anne, and his siblings. His legacy lives on in the family films that defined a generation, and in the filmmakers and executives he helped shape along the way.