CNN and The Hollywood Reporter say he died at his home in Manhattan, New York, of natural causes.
Their most well-known film, "Grey Gardens" (1975), was a profile of Jacqueline Onassis' eccentric cousins -- mother and daughter Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier -- who lived in a dilapidated, cat-packed estate in East Hampton, New York. The brothers worked with fellow directors Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer on the film, which was remade as a Tony-winning Broadway play and as an award-winning 2009 HBO drama that starred Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange.
Colorado Matters looked back on "Valley Curtain" in 2010, as Christo worked to get another Colorado project approved, "Over the River."
"The excitement in making a documentary film is that it's for real and you don't what's coming up next. It's more than one can imagine," Maysles said in the interview.
Maysles had a long relationship with Christo, making five films about the artist's work. From The New York Times:
The first was “Christo’s Valley Curtain” (1974), which was nominated for a documentary short-subject Oscar, and the last was “The Gates” (2005), about the artists’ temporary transformation of Central Park.
His brother, David Maysles, died in 1987.
Here's a clip from the first part of "Valley Curtain."
