Kevin Tierney, producer of Bon Cop, Bad Cop, dead at 67

Kevin Tierney, a pioneeringMontreal film producer andwriter who playfully explored the province's linguistic divide, has died at the age of 67.

Tierney passed awayearly Saturday after a "long hard fight with cancer," his family said in a post on his Facebook page.

"My dad, the amazing Kevin Tierney, left us this morning at 4:15. My sister, mom and I were all there," his son, Jacob,wrote on Instagram.

Bon Cop, Bad Cop,whichTierneyproduced andco-wrote, isthe highest-grossing Canadian film ever made. It won the 2006 Genie Award for Best Picture.

Erik Canuel, the director of Bon Cop Bad Cop, remembered Tierneyas "very funny, very intelligent, very compassionate about the craft of making movies."

"We lost a great man," Canueltold CBC. "Kevin was a man of honour, he basically said what he thought, had not really a good filter, which I loved."

He said Tierney's passing will leave a big hole in the city's film scene, and that working with him was always something he looked forward to.

"He had great arguments, and he listened. He listened and he brought a lot of himself into the script and into the production."

Bridging the divide

Bon Cop, Bad Cop, released in2006, tells the story of two police officers one Ontarian and oneQubcoiswho reluctantly join forces to solve a murder.

ColmFeoreplayed OPP officer Martin Ward.PatrickHuard,one of the film's other co-writers, playedhisSretduQubeccounterpart.

The dialogue is a mixture of English and French, and the film's humour plays off the culture clash between the two officers.

"When I first heard the premise from PatrickHuard, my first reaction was, 'How the hell did we already not make this movie?'"Tierneyrecalled in a2010 interview withCBC'sBernard St-Laurent.

Tierneywould explore the same themes inFrench Immersion, a 2011 comedy that followsa group ofanglophoneswho come to a remote town inNorthern Quebecin order to learn French.

In his interview with St-Laurent, Tierneyreflected on his reputation as the "anti-solitudes producer."

"It's my life. It's the way you live here. It's not strange to me. Most of my life is spent going from one language to the next," he said.

"It would be preposterous to talk to my anglophone wife and my anglophone children in French, but many of my friends, and certainly the way I make my living, is in French.

"I have an ironic take on it because I do not feel particularly Canadian and I certainly have been told I am not Qubcois, and so, to me, it's like I'm a bon anglais, because I can speak French.That's it."

His long list of credits also include serving asexecutive producer for the Gemini-nominatedChoice: The Henry Morgentaler Story(2003), about the doctor whose advocacy led to a Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in Canada, andOne Dead Indian(2006), about the fatal shooting of an Indigenousman during a land-claims confrontation. It won a Gemini Award for best TV movie.

He also producedThe Trotsky, a film about a revolutionary Montreal high school student directed by his son, Jacob.Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2 was released last year.

'His films touched us all'

Born on Aug. 27,1950, Tierney went to high school in St. Hubert, Que., on Montreal's South Shore before attending both McGill and Concordia.

He taught English as a second language abroad before going into show business. More recently, Tierneyworked as a columnist at the Montreal Gazette.

He served as vice-chair of cinema for the Academy of Canadian Cinema andTelevision, and was given a producer'saward from the Canadian Film and Television Production Association in 2009.

Telefilm Canada said Saturdaythat Tierney was an important figure in Canadian cinema.

"His films touched us all and will live on as a part of Canadian culture,'' thetweet said.

"Our deepest sympathies to the Tierney family."