4:3 Director Blake Edwards dead at age 88

Описание: (16 Dec 2010) SHOTLIST
1. Arrival of director Blake Edwards and his wife, actress Julie Andrews
2. Various of Blake Edwards arriving on stage to pick up Writers Guild of America lifetime achievement award
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Blake Edwards, director and writer, recipient of Writers Guild of America lifetime achievement award
"Sometime mid-career, I was asked if there was one award that I coveted the most. I replied that I didn't covet awards - but I was lying through my teeth, partly to keep my hard-earned insurgent reputation intact, but mainly because I never thought I'd get it. There was one award that I secretly coveted above all else and I am getting it tonight, thank you."
4. Audience give him a standing ovation
STORYLINE
Blake Edwards, the director and writer known for clever dialogue, poignance and occasional belly-laugh sight gags in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", "10" and the "Pink Panther" farces, is dead at age 88.
Edwards died from complications of pneumonia on Wednesday at Saint John's Health Centre in Santa Monica, his publicist announced on Thursday.
Blake's wife, Julie Andrews, and other family members were at his side.
He had been in hospital for about two weeks.
Edwards had knee problems, had undergone unsuccessful procedures and was "pretty much confined to a wheelchair for the last year-and-a-half or two", his publicist said.
That may have contributed to his condition, he added.
At the time of his death, Edwards was working on two Broadway musicals, one based on the "Pink Panther" movies.
The other, "Big Rosemary", was to be an original comedy set during Prohibition.
A third-generation filmmaker, Edwards was praised for evoking classic performances from Jack Lemmon, Audrey Hepburn, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore, Lee Remick and Andrews, his wife of nearly half a century.
He directed and often wrote a wide variety of movies, including "10", "Days of Wine and Roses", a harrowing story of alcoholism; "The Great Race", a comedy-adventure that starred Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood, and "Victor/Victoria", his gender-bender musical comedy with Andrews.
He was also known for an independent spirit that brought clashes with studio bosses.
He vented his disdain for the Hollywood system in his 1981 black comedy, "S.O.B."
Although many of Edwards' films were solid hits, he was nominated for Academy Awards only twice, in 1982 for writing the adapted screenplay of "Victor/Victoria" and in 1983 for co-writing "The Man Who Loved Women".
Lemmon and Remick won Oscar nominations in 1962 for "Days of Wine and Roses" and Hepburn was nominated for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in 1961.
The motion picture academy selected Edwards to receive a lifetime achievement award in 2004 for "his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen".
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" in 1961 established Edwards as a stylish director who could combine comedy with bittersweet romance.
His next two films proved his versatility: the suspenseful "Experiment in Terror" (1962) and "Days of Wine and Roses" (1963), the story of a couple's alcoholism, with Lemmon in his first dramatic role.
"The Great Race", about an auto race in the early 1900s, marked Edwards' first attempt at a big-budget spectacle.
He spent Warner Bros' money lavishly, raising the ire of studio boss Jack Warner.
The 1965 release proved a modest success.
For a decade, Edwards' only hits were "Pink Panther" sequels.
Then came "10", which he also produced and wrote.
The sex comedy became a box-office winner, creating a new star in Bo Derek and restoring the director's reputation.

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