Oscar-winning writer and director Curtis Hanson has died aged 71.

Paramedics declared The Hand That Rocks The Cradle director dead at his Hollywood Hills home.

Hanson, who won a screenwriting Oscar and was nominated for best director for La Confidential, died of natural causes, a Los Angeles police spokesperson said.

Hanson had retired in recent years due to Alzheimer's.

Born in Reno, Nevada, Hanson grew up in Los Angeles, dropping out of high school to work as a photographer, writer and editor of the magazine Cinema, which he described as "in a sense, my film school".

He began screenwriting and directing in the early 1970s, but did not see serious success until directing 1992's The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. The film starring Rebecca De Mornay as a revenge-seeking nanny became a major hit.

Hanson went on to direct 1994's The River Wild with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon, and 2000's Wonder Boys with Tobey Maguire and Michael Douglas.

He also directed 8 Mile, the film starring Eminem, and in recent years directed the 2011 film on the financial crisis Too Big To Fail and the 2012 Gerard Butler surfing film Chasing Mavericks.