Blake Edwards Has Died

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 at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said publicist Gene Schwam. Blake’s wife, Julie Andrews, and other family members were at his side. He had been hospitalized 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,” Schwam 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, Schwam said.

“His heart was as big as his talent. He was an Academy Award winner in all respects,” said Schwam, who knew him for 40 years.

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 ‘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.’

“I was certainly getting back at some of the producers of my life,” he once remarked, “although I was a good deal less scathing than I could have been. The only way I got to make it was because of the huge success of ’10,’ and even then they tried to sabotage it.”

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. He scored again in 1982 with ‘Victor/Victoria,’ with Andrews playing a woman who poses as a (male) female impersonator. His later films became more personal, particularly the 1986 “That’s Life,” which he wrote with his psychiatrist.

After Sellers’ death in 1980, Edwards attempted to keep the ‘Pink Panther’ franchise alive. He wrote and directed ‘Curse of the Pink Panther’ in 1983 and ‘Son of the Pink Panther’ in 1993 but both were failed efforts.

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Blake Edwards Has Died

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