By Iain Blair

I was so shocked to get a call from London about the sudden death of Oscar®-winning director Anthony Minghella, whose credits include The English Patient, `The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. He was just 54 and one of the nicest people I have ever met. Over the years, I interviewed him many times for the LA Times and other outlets, and he would always go out of his way to make sure I had everything I needed for my stories, even calling me at home to chat about some aspect of his latest film. As John Woodward, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Film Council says, “Anthony was at home in many art forms, but ultimately he was one of the great British filmmakers of his generation. He sweated over every frame of every film, but his influence went beyond the films and he was a top ambassador for the industry both in the UK and internationally. As Chairman, he laid the foundations for the renaissance of the BFI and he was a brilliant member of the UK Film Council board for five years. Even more importantly he was 100% genuine and he believed in the goodness of others.” Minghella was recently in Botswana filming an adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s novel The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. It is due to air on British television this week. He was also very involved with the Oscar®-nominated film Michael Clayton, on which he was executive producer. He’ll be sorely missed.

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