Malik Bendjelloul Dead: ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ Director Dies at 36 [UPDATED]

Director Malik Bendjelloul attends the Sony Pictures Classics Pre-Oscar Dinner at The London Hotel on February 23, 2013 in West Hollywood, California. He died on May 13 at the age of 36. (Todd Williamson/Invision for Sony Pictures Classics/AP)

Malik Bendjelloul, the director of “Searching for Sugar Man,” which won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, has passed away at age 36.

Bendjelloul was born in 1977 in Ystad, Sweden.

He also directed “The History of Heavy Metal” and earlier in his life was a child actor.

Brother Johar Bendjelloul Aftonbladet confirmed to DN.se that Bendjelloul died, and said that the family wants to be left alone.

Police said that Bendjelloul was found dead in the Stockholm area and that the death is not related to crime.

“Searching for Sugar Man” detailed the life and career of American singer Sixto Rodriguez. 

Bendjelloul grew up in central and southern Sweden and acted in Swedish TV-series “Ebba and Didrik” as a child during the 1990s. He studied journalism and media-production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar in southern Sweden and later worked as a reporter for Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

He resigned from that job to travel the world and he got the idea for “Searching for Sugar Man” during one of his trips.

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 The Associated Press contributed to this report.