FAMED HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR, BLAKE EDWARDS passed away Wednesday night of complications from pneumonia. He was in a Santa Monica, California, hospital with his wife, actress Julie Andrews and other family members at his side.
Mr. Edwards was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and moved to California as a young man following his father who was a stage director and his grandfather who had been a silent-film actor. He is best known for his creation of the Pink Panther movies starring Peter Sellers, but his fame came before that. The Wikipedia biography of him states:
His early career as a scriptwriter was for radio where he was given an early break by Orson Welles on his production of The War of the Worlds (1938). Welles later credited Edwards as having written the famous line: “They’re here and they’re hungry.” His hard-boiled private detective scripts for Richard Diamond, Private Detective became NBC’s answer to Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, reflecting Edwards’s unique humor.
Edwards also created, wrote and directed the 1959 TV series Peter Gunn, with music by Henry Mancini. In the same year Edwards produced, with Mancini’s musical theme, Mr. Lucky, an adventure series on CBS starring John Vivyan and Ross Martin. Mancini’s association with Edwards continued in his film work, significantly contributing to their success.
He also had been a successful film actor in his own right. But it was as a director that he had his greatest success. Besides the hugely-popular Pink Panther series, he directed several other hits including Days of Wine and Roses, 10, Victor Victoria, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The Associated Press has released this video report:
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