THE film world mourned the loss of a towering figure last night after the Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella died suddenly at the age of 54.
Mr Minghella, named best director in 1997 when The English Patient swept the Academy Awards, died early yesterday of a haemorrhage after complications from surgery, his agent said.
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, a personal friend, said he was
"deeply saddened". The film producer, David Puttnam, called it a "shattering blow".
Minghella had undergone an operation last week for cancer of the tonsils and neck, his agent Leslee Dart said.
Tragically, he died on the day his television film, The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, based on the novels of Alexander McCall Smith, was to have its London premiere. The film will be broadcast on BBC on Easter Day.
Mr McCall Smith was just one of many to pay tribute to Minghella. "Britain has just lost its most distinguished and sympathetic director, who made such beautiful films. I feel so privileged to have known him," he said. "I am devastated by this news." Only last week, a deal was agreed to expand the film to a 13-part series on the American channel HBO.
Minghella entered the screen industry as a jobbing scriptwriter and director. He worked on children's television series like Grange Hill and on episodes of the ITV Inspector Morse series, starring John Thaw.
In 1986 won he won the London Theatre Critics' Award for his play Made in Bangkok, which showed in the West End. His debut as a film director came in 1991 with the tear-jerker Truly, Madly, Deeply starring Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson.
In 1997 The English Patient, starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche, was a high watermark for quality British film-making.
Yesterday Fiennes said he was "devastated and shocked". "Anthony possessed a sensitivity and alertness to the actor's process that very few directors have," he said. "He directed most of The English Patient with an ankle in plaster, never losing his gentle humour and precision."
Minghella went on to direct hugely successful films including The Talented Mr Ripley, in 1999, with Matt Damon and Jude Law. Law also starred with Nicole Kidman in Minghella's American Civil War epic Cold Mountain in 2003.
Law said he had come to value Minghella more as a friend than as a colleague. "He was a brilliantly talented writer and director who wrote dialogue that was a joy to speak and then put it on to the screen in a way that always looked effortless," he said.
In 2005 – the year he directed his first opera – Minghella was a guest of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, talking about his work and interests in an on-stage interview.
The festival's managing director, Ginnie Atkinson, said: "He was a classy and sophisticated film-maker and an important British director who will be missed."
In 2006 he interviewed the-then Chancellor Gordon Brown on stage for the Edinburgh International Book Festival and directed a 2005 party election broadcast featuring a conversation between Mr Brown and the then PM Tony Blair.
Mr Brown said yesterday: "He was one of Britain's greatest creative talents, one of our finest screenwriters and directors, a great champion of the British film industry and an expert on literature and opera.
I counted him as a great friend," Mr Brown said.
Minghella was married and had two grown-up children.
MAN OF MANY TALENTSANTHONY Minghella's career spanned both ends of the television and film spectrum. He cut his teeth on the classic BBC children's television series Grange Hill. His writing talents were also in demand when he collaborated with The Muppets creator Jim Henson on his 1988 programme The Storyteller. Minghella's debut as a film director came in 1991 with the tear-jerker Truly, Madly, Deeply. When The English Patient stole the headlines at the Oscars in 1997, it was clear Minghella had established his name firmly on the world stage.
He went on to direct hugely successful films including Cold Mountain (2003).
The full article contains 688 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
