( CNN ) -- Bud Greenspan , the filmmaker known for producing documentaries about the inspirational stories of Olympic athletes , has died . Greenspan , 84 , succumbed Saturday afternoon to complications from Parkinson 's Disease , according to companion Nancy Beffa . Greenspan , who began his career in sports radio broadcasting in the mid-1940s , became a filmmaker a decade later . His first documentary to attract widespread attention was his 1964 film , `` Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin . '' That documentary -- and 21 other Greenspan films that made up the series `` The Olympiad '' -- garnered him an Emmy Award in 1976 . Greenspan went on to make numerous other films including docudramas . He also authored several books about the Olympics . CNN was provided with an e-mail Beffa received from Norm Bellingham after he had been told of Greenspan 's death . Bellingham is chief operating officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee and an Olympic gold medalist . `` I am feeling a terrible loss , '' Bellingham . `` I was just thinking of him this morning -- looking through the many Olympic stories and wondering how he picked the ones that he did and then sorted out how to tell them with such extraordinary power . '' In a prepared statement released Sunday afternoon , USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun said , `` For more than six decades , Bud Greenspan has connected the Olympic Movement to everyday people in ways the founders of the Games could n't have imagined . '' `` While the entire Olympic Movement mourns the loss of a giant today , '' Blackmun stated , `` his stories will continue to live on , carrying his passion for the Olympic Movement for years and years to come . '' CNN 's John Branch contributed to this report .
Olympic documentary filmmaker Bud Greenspan dies at 84 . Greenspan died of complications from Parkinson 's disease , his companion says . Greenspan made uplifting films about Olympic athletes overcoming tragedy .