Chicago producer Martin Richards has died

Oscar-winning producer Martin Richards passed away in his New York City home at age 80 on Monday after losing a battle with cancer.

Richards, who produced the original Broadway version of Chicago, won the Academy Award for Best Picture for its film adaptation in 2003.

His 80th birthday was hosted by Chicago actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas.

Martin Richards at the Broadway Salutes, Arts Horizons Annual Gala in 2010. Source: Getty

The Broadway legend also produced Sweeney Todd, La Cage aux Folles, Crimes of the Heart, Grand Hotel, The Will Rogers Follies, On the Twentieth Century and The Life.

His productions received 36 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize among other awards.

In Hollywood, he produced films including The Shining, The Boys from Brazil, and Fort Apache, The Bronx, working with stars from Gregory Peck and Sir Laurence Olivier to Jack Nicholson and Paul Newman.

When his wife Mary Lea passed away from liver cancer in 1990, Richards established a liver and kidney transplant unit at the New York University Medical Center in her honour.