posted 11-11-2014 02:40 PM               

Michael Lennick, the documentary filmmaker whose credits included the award-winning 10-part series "Rocket Science" and "Doctor Teller's Very Large Bomb," both of which aired on PBS, has died. He was 61.

His friend Chris Darling, one of the producers of Warner Bros.' upcoming Robert Downey Jr. film "Perry Mason and The Lost Legion," told The Hollywood Reporter that Lennick died Friday (Nov. 7) in Toronto from an aggressive brain tumor that landed him in the hospital a month ago. He was surrounded by friends and family when he died Friday after being taken off life support.

Among Lennick's other credits are "The Land of Space and Time" and "The Highest Step in the World," which won awards at the White Sands and Houston film festivals. Lennick's films have been featured as extended material on DVDs and Blu-rays, many from Criterion.

Darling also described Lennick as a "friend and confidant of the leading names in the world of astronautics" whose "films featured a veritable who's who of NASA personalities and jaw-dropping footage never before seen by the general public."