Career
He was raised in Dallas, earned a degree from Yale University and did graduate work at the University of Southern California. He and Rothman worked together on a number of films for Roger Corman and were involved in the establishment of Dimension Pictures. Swartz later became an important figure in the development of digital cinema, writing the text book Understanding Digital Cinema: A Professional Handbook (2004) and working at the research centre of the University of Southern California Entertainment Technology Centre from 2003–2007.
He died of pneumonia following a battle with brain cancer.