Anthony Minghella

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Anthony Minghella CBE

Minghella in 2003
Born 6 January 1954(1954-01-06)
Ryde, Isle of Wight, England
Died 18 March 2008 (aged 54)
London, England
Occupation Director, Producer, Screenwriter, and Actor
Years active 1981—2008
Spouse(s) Carolyn Choa

Anthony Minghella CBE (January 6, 1954 — March 18, 2008) was an Academy Award-winning English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Minghella was born on the Isle of Wight at Ryde, the son of Gloria and Edward Minghella, ice cream factory owners.[1] His father was Italian/Scottish and his mother came from Leeds; her ancestors originally came from Valvori, a small village in the Lazio region of central Italy. Minghella attended Sandown Grammar School and St John's College (Portsmouth). He was a graduate of the University of Hull, where he completed undergraduate and postgraduate courses, but eventually abandoned his doctoral thesis.

[edit] Career

His first piece of produced work was a 1975 stage adaptation of Gabriel Josipovici's Mobius the Stripper; however, it was his 1985 piece Whale Music that kickstarted his career.[2] He made his directorial debut with a double bill of Samuel Beckett's Play and Happy Days. During the 1980s, he worked in television, starting as a runner on Magpie before moving into script editing the children's drama series Grange Hill for the BBC and later writing The Storyteller series for Jim Henson. He also wrote several episodes of the ITV detective drama Inspector Morse. His 1986 play Made in Bangkok found mainstream success in the West End.

Minghella won radio success with a Giles Cooper Award for his radio drama Cigarettes and Chocolate[3] first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1988. It was revived on 3 May 2008 as a tribute to its author director following his death. His production starred Juliet Stevenson, Bill Nighy and Jenny Howe. His first radio play Hang Up, starring Anton Lesser and Juliet Stevenson, was revived on 10 May 2008 as part of the BBC Radio 4 Minghella season.[4]

Minghella's 1990 feature Truly, Madly, Deeply, a drama he had written and directed for the BBC's Screen Two anthology strand, bypassed its expected TV broadcast and received a cinema release. In order to make the film, he had turned down an offer to direct another episode of Inspector Morse, which he had thought would be a much higher-profile assignment.

In 1996, he won the Academy Award for Directing for The English Patient. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay for 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley.

The pilot episode of the television adaptation of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which he co-wrote and directed, was broadcast on BBC One shortly after his death on 23 March 2008; it was watched by 6.3 million viewers.

He vocally supported I Know I'm Not Alone, a film of musician Michael Franti's peacemaking excursions into Iraq, Palestine and Israel.

He directed a party election broadcast for the Labour Party in 2005. The short film depicted Tony Blair and Gordon Brown working together and was criticised for being insincere: "The Anthony Minghella party political broadcast last year was full of body language fibs", said Peter Collett, a psychologist at the University of Oxford. "When you are talking to me, I'll give you my full attention only if I think you are very high status or if I love you. On that party political broadcast, they are staring at each other like lovers. It is completely false."[5]

He returned to radio drama in 2006 with Eyes Down Looking on BBC Radio 3, starring Jude Law, Juliet Stevenson and David Threlfall to mark Samuel Beckett's 100th birthday celebrations.[6]

Minghella made his operatic debut directing Puccini's Madama Butterfly. It was first seen at the English National Opera in London in 2005, at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius in March 2006 and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in September 2006. The Anthony Minghella Theatre at Quay Arts Centre on the Isle of Wight is named in his honour. Minghella also made an appearance in the 2007 film Atonement, playing a television host interviewing the novelist whose role was central to the story.

[edit] Personal life

Minghella was married to Hong Kong-born choreographer Carolyn Choa. His brother, Dominic, is also a successful scriptwriter, and his son, Max, is an actor. His daughter Hannah worked as a production assistant on The Talented Mr. Ripley. His sister Edana participated in a jazz event on the Isle of Wight, and his nephew Dante is one of the participants in Channel 4's Child Genius series.

He was a big Portsmouth F.C. fan and appeared in the Channel 4 documentary Hallowed Be Thy Game. His home had two double bedrooms dedicated to the display of Portsmouth memorabilia dating back to the club's founding in 1898.[7][8]

[edit] Death

Minghella died on March 18, 2008 of a haemorrhage in Charing Cross Hospital, London, following an operation the previous week to remove cancer of the tonsils and neck.[9][10]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Director

Year Title Oscar
nominations		 Oscar
wins		 Bafta Awards
nominations		 Bafta Awards
wins
1990
 Truly, Madly, Deeply . .
3
1
1993
 Mr. Wonderful
1996
 The English Patient
12
9
13
6
1999
 The Talented Mr. Ripley
5
 .
7
1
2000
 Play
2003
 Cold Mountain
7
1
13
2
2006
 Breaking and Entering
2008
 The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

[edit] Producer

Year Title Notes
2001
 Iris (executive)
2002
 Heaven
The Quiet American (executive)
2005
 The Interpreter (executive)
2006
 Catch a Fire
Breaking and Entering
2007
 Michael Clayton (executive)
2008
 Margaret (executive)
The Reader
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Love You More

[edit] Actor

Year Title Role
2007
 Atonement Interviewer

[edit] Selected plays

  • Whale Music (New End Theatre, Hampstead, June 1981); revived for radio, BBC Radio 4, 10 May 2008
  • Two Planks And A Passion (Greenwich Theatre, November 1984)
  • A Little Like Drowning (Hampstead Theatre, July 1984)
  • Made In Bangkok (West End debut as a playwright, Aldwych Theatre. 18 March 1986, director Michael Blakemore)
  • Hang Up (radio play for BBC Radio 4,1987)
  • Cigarettes and Chocolate (60-minute radio play for BBC Radio 4, 1988)
  • Eyes Down Looking (Beckett 100th Birthday tribute, radio play for BBC Radio 3, 1 April 2006)

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anthony Minghella Biography (1954-)
  2. ^ Anthony Minghella at Hollywood.com
  3. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00b62ff
  4. ^ http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/20523/bbc-radio-to-air-minghella-play-season
  5. ^ Henderson, Mark (2006-09-06). The science behind their mutual dislike. The Times Online. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
  6. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/theverb/pip/rvilt/
  7. ^ Anthony Minghella portsmouthfc.co.uk, Official site, 18 March 2008
  8. ^ Oliver Duff, Pandora: Director's dream for Pompey The Independent, 19 March 2008
  9. ^ Oscar-winner Minghella dies after cancer op
  10. ^ "Anthony Minghella, Director, Dies at 54.", New York Times, 18 March 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-19. "Anthony Minghella, a British filmmaker who won an Academy Award for his direction of “The English Patient,” died Tuesday morning in London." 

[edit] External links


Awards
Academy Award
Preceded by
Mel Gibson
for Braveheart		 Academy Award for Best Director
1996
for The English Patient		 Succeeded by
James Cameron
for Titanic
BAFTA Award
Preceded by
Giuseppe Tornatore
for Nuovo cinema Paradiso		 Best Original Screenplay
1991
for Truly, Madly, Deeply		 Succeeded by
Woody Allen
for Husbands and Wives
Preceded by
John Hodge
for Trainspotting		 Best Adapted Screenplay
1996
for The English Patient		 Succeeded by
Craig Pearce, Baz Luhrmann
for Romeo + Juliet
DGA Award
Preceded by
Ron Howard
for Apollo 13		 Outstanding Directorial Achievement
1996
for The English Patient		 Succeeded by
James Cameron
for Titanic


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Academy Award for Best Director

Warren Beatty (1981) · Richard Attenborough (1982) · James L. Brooks (1983) · Miloš Forman (1984) · Sydney Pollack (1985) · Oliver Stone (1986) · Bernardo Bertolucci (1987) · Barry Levinson (1988) · Oliver Stone (1989) Kevin Costner (1990) · Jonathan Demme (1991) · Clint Eastwood (1992) · Steven Spielberg (1993) · Robert Zemeckis (1994) · Mel Gibson (1995) · Anthony Minghella (1996) · James Cameron (1997) · Steven Spielberg (1998) · Sam Mendes (1999) · Steven Soderbergh (2000)

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