Blake Edwards - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

Blake Edwards - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Writer, Director, Producer, Actor.

July 26, 1922, Tulsa, Oklahoma - December 15, 2010, Santa Monica, California - American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor.

Edwards graduated from high school in Beverly Hills, completed his military service in the Coast Guard, and his stepfather took him to work in the family business. Edwards signed a contract with a film studio and in the 1940s starred in nearly 25 films, including the likes of The Swamp Dryers (1945) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

Edwards went on to write, writing for the radio series Richard Diamond, Private Investigator (1949), in which he showed his inherent sense of humor, and in the 1950s he wrote a number of screenplays for films. In 1953, Edwards produced the series City Detective.

1955 saw his debut as director of Smile, a musical romance in which a schoolteacher and songwriter finds love in the big city. The next film, "Mr. Corey," released in 1956, was a big hit with audiences, with the future screen star, young Tony Curtis, playing for the first time. In 1958, Edwards released a hugely successful Emmy-nominated new television series, Peter Gunn.

The peak of his creative activity came in the 1960s, starting with the classic comedy "Operation Petticoat" starring Tony Curtis and Cary Grant. In 1961, Edwards released one of the most ironic films - Breakfast at Tiffany's, Audrey Hepburn - the film's heroine - was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of a fragile country girl portraying a sophisticated socialite. And composer Henry Mancini, who previously worked with Edwards on the Peter Gunn series and composed the song Moon River for Breakfast at Tiffany's, received an Academy Award for it. Many years of creative collaboration with composer Henry Mancini helped Blake Edwards develop his creative potential.

Followed by the groundbreaking film Days of Wine and Roses (1963), starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick, where he boldly raised the problem of alcohol addiction. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Drama and inspired the main characters who played in it to seek their own freedom from alcohol addiction.

Thanks to his inherent versatility, Edwards turns to different genres and themes, for example, in 1962 he released the thriller Experiment in Terror, which gave the impression of documentary filming. And then he turns to the image of the French inspector-razini Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), and the era of the series "Pink Panther" begins. The first film immediately becomes a hit thanks to its sophistication and crude humor. Sellers also contributed to the film, creating a unique image of the protagonist, and although Sellers often argued with Edwards during filming, and they both vowed never to work together, they met on the set of the next film, Shot in the Dark (1964 ).

Edwards continues to shoot comedies: "Big Race" (1965), "Party" (1968). However, then Blake Edwards suffered huge financial losses after "Dear Lily", fell out with the heads of the studio over the films "Wild Pirates" (1971) and "Carrie's Treatment" (1972).

Depression ensued, and Edwards and his fiancee, actress Julia Andrews, who played in Dear Lily, moved to Europe, where they remained for a long time.

Due to financial problems, Edwards returns to filming the sequel to The Pink Panther. Return of the Pink Panther (1975) was a resounding success. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Edwards continued to release sequels to The Pink Panther.

In the future, the director continued to actively work in the comedy genre, both in the USA and in Europe, although not all of his films were successful. Among his successes are such films as Victor / Victoria (1982), which won awards in Italy and France for best foreign film, Blind Date (1987) with Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger, Substitution (1991) with Ellen Barkin.

In 1993, Blake Edwards reached out to his permanent hero, Inspector Clouseau, for the last time with the film Son of the Pink Panther, starring Italian comedian Roberto Benigni.

In 2004, Blake Edwards was awarded a special honorary Oscar by the American Film Academy for his contribution to the development of motion pictures. In delivering his speech, he thanked all friends and enemies, without whom he would not have been able to achieve any success.

For many years of his creative career, 39 films by Edwards were nominated for such awards as Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy, at the same time, he organized and conducted creative evenings - disputes between leading figures in the film business, which is generally recognized as his great contribution in the development of cinema.

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Author: Jane Watson