{"id":1497,"date":"2008-03-18T19:52:44","date_gmt":"2008-03-18T18:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/archives\/2008\/03\/18\/anthony-minghella-has-died-aged-54\/"},"modified":"2008-03-23T12:08:51","modified_gmt":"2008-03-23T11:08:51","slug":"anthony-minghella-has-died-aged-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/03\/18\/anthony-minghella-has-died-aged-54\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Minghella has died aged 54"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anthony<\/a>Director Anthony Minghella<\/strong><\/a> has died aged 54.<\/p>\n

BBC News report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

He had an operation for a growth in his neck last week and the operation seemed to have gone well.<\/p>\n

But he had a fatal haemorrhage at 0500 GMT on Tuesday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is very sad loss for the British film industry, as Minghella had achieved critical and commerical success in Hollywood, but also helped get other films off the ground as a producer.<\/p>\n

Early in his career he won awards for his radio plays and was a script editor<\/a> on Grange Hill<\/a> in the mid 80s.<\/p>\n

But it was with Truly, Madly Deeply<\/strong><\/a> in 1990 that his film career really began, even though it was initially a TV movie that went on to get a theatrical release.<\/p>\n

After the relative disappointment of his next film Mr Wonderful<\/strong><\/a> – a 1993 romantic comedy with Matt Dillon<\/a> and Annabella Sciorra<\/a>, he took on the challenge of adapting Michael Ondaatje<\/a>‘s novel The English Patient<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite numerous financial difficulties in getting the film made, it ended up at Miramax<\/a> and the end result was a critical and commercial triumph as it won 9 Oscars.<\/p>\n

His next film was The Talented Mr Ripley<\/strong><\/a>, another literary adaptation (based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel) and although it was not quite as successful, it may perhaps thought of as his finest work.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, the cast reads like a roll call of actors who would go on to greater success in the ensuing decade: Matt Damon<\/a>, Jude Law<\/a>, Gwyneth Paltrow<\/a>, Philip Seymour Hoffman<\/a> and Cate Blanchett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His next two films were ambitious: 2003 saw him direct Cold Mountain<\/strong><\/a> – an accomplished adaptation of Chalres Frazier’s civil war set novel with Jude Law and Nicole Kidman<\/a> in the lead roles, whilst his most recent work was 2006’s Breaking and Entering<\/a>, a drama set in contemporary London with Jude Law<\/a>, Robin Wright Penn<\/a>, Juliette Binoche<\/a> and Ray Winstone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Along with Sydney Pollack, he set up Mirage Pictures and helped\u00a0produce a diverse slate of films such as Heaven<\/a>, The Quiet American<\/a>, The Interpreter<\/a>, Catch a Fire<\/a> and Michael Clayton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His most recent work was a 90 minute pilot for The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency<\/a>, which was scheduled to air on BBC1 this Sunday. Based on the novel by Alexander McCall Smith<\/a>, it is about a Botswanan woman starts up the country’s first female-owned detective agency.<\/p>\n

He was also chairman of the British Film Institute<\/a> between 2003 and 2007.<\/p>\n

Despite his undoubted filmmaking skills, a lot of people in the industry had an enormous amount of time and respect for Anthony as person. One actor I spoke to today – not a huge star by any means – told me that he received a hand written letter after enquiring about a possible supporting role in Cold Mountain. He didn’t get the part but it was a measure of the man that he took the time out to reply personally.<\/p>\n

Although I never met him, people who worked with him always had good things to say about him – both on and off the record – and in the film industry that isn’t always the case.<\/p>\n

This is a short video of Anthony talking about his life and career to producer Duncan Kenworthy:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

This video is Anthony and Micahel Ondaatjie talking to Charlie Rose about The English Patient in 1996:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

UPDATE 20\/03\/08: Friends of Anthony have set up a blog<\/a> where people who knew or worked with him can leave a message or memory.<\/p>\n

Mail can be sent to Old Chapel Studios, 19 Fleet Road, London NW3 2QR.<\/p>\n

> BBC News report his death<\/a>
\n> Anthony Minghella at the IMDb
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Anthony Minghella has died aged 54. BBC News report: He had an operation for a growth in his neck last week and the operation seemed to have gone well. But he had a fatal haemorrhage at 0500 GMT on Tuesday. It is very sad loss for the British film industry, as Minghella had achieved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}