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The talented Mr Minghella

Last Modified: 18 Mar 2008
By: Nicholas Glass

British director Anthony Minghella has died from a haemorrhage at the age of 54.

He wrote and directed some of the best-known British films of recent times, among them, Truly, Madly Deeply, The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley.

Mr Minghella was chairman of the British Film Institute, in where he bemoaned the lack of movies made in Britain and the waste of home grown talent.

At the last election, he directed a Labour party political broadcast that included Tony Blair and Gordon Brown chatting informally about the challenges ahead.

The films of Anthony Minghella

Anthony Minghella has had a varied career, from writing and editing several episodes of Grange Hill in the mid '80s to playing the part of the interviewer in Atonement last year. But he is most famous for being a director.

Of the many films he has directed, some of the most celebrated and well-known include: Truly Madly Deeply (1990), The English Patient (1996), The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003).

He had just completed filming The No1 Ladies Detective Agency, was in the process of filming New York, I Love You and had just announced The Ninth Life of Louis Drax.

Minghella has won - and been nominated for - many awards. His most critically successful film is perhaps The English Patient, which won several of the awards for which it was nominated, including: an Oscar, Empire Award, Bafta, Guild Film Award - Gold, Mainichi Film Concours award, Golden Satellite Award and Directors Guild of America award.