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Film financier William Santor, best known for bringing Hollywood titles such as The Baker (2022) and The Retirement Plan (2023) to his adopted home of the Cayman Islands, died on December 28. He was 50.
Santor’s death has been confirmed by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service in multiple local media reports. The Canadian-born financier was found unresponsive at his home on the island and was later taken to the Cayman Islands Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officers are investigating.
In a statement to Deadline, the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service said it is “carrying out an investigation surrounding the sudden death of a 50-year-old-man who is a Canadian citizen residing in the Cayman Islands.”
“The matter is an active investigation and all investigative lines of enquiries are being carried out,” the statement continued.
Deadline has contacted Productivity Media, Santor’s former company, for further comment.
Santor co-founded Productivity Media alongside producers John Hills and Andrew Chang-Sang in 2012. It went on to back The Little Hours, starring Alison Brie, and Black Bear, led by Aubrey Plaza. Some Hollywood industry we spoke to were shocked and saddened by the news.
In 2021, the company teamed with the Cayman Islands Film Commission and the Cayman’s Ministry of International Trade to boost production on the Caribbean island under a multiple-picture pact. Under the deal, pics such as the Ron Perlman-starrer The Baker, the Nicolas Cage flick The Retirement Plan, and Unit 234 with Don Johnson, were shot on the island.
At the time of his death, Santor had been suspended from his role as CEO at Productivity following allegations about “financial mismanagement,” first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. According to that report, Productivity Media had placed Santor on a “temporary leave of absence” while an auditor was brought in to check its books and review loans.
The company was later placed into receivership and auditors stated in legal filings that Santor had misappropriated more than $44M from Productivity through an “elaborate scheme” of “fictitious loans to artificial companies.” He did not comment on the allegations.
Santor had not been convicted or indicted in connection to the accusations.
He is listed as a producer on two upcoming titles: sci-fi mystery Littlemouth starring Dennis Quad, and It Feeds starring Twilight-alum Ashley Greene, however the former shot back in 2022 and the latter in mid-2023 and neither has been released yet. Littlemouth stars Dennis Quaid, Isabelle Fuhrman, David Thewlis, Josh Hutcherson and Kiera Allen.
He was married with two young children.
