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Anthony Minghella

Anthony Minghella

Anthony Minghella's film The English Patient, which he wrote and directed, won nine 1996 Academy Awards including those for Best Picture and Best Director. Based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje, the film starred Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas and Willem Dafoe and was honored with 30 film awards overall, including two Golden Globes, six BAFTA Awards, the Writer's Guild Award for Best Screenplay and the The Scripters Award for Best Director.

Minghella went on to win the 1999 Best Director Award from the National Board of Review for his film The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on the classic crime novel by Patricia Highsmith and starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. In 2000, Minghella was named by American Theater owners as ShoWest's Director of the Year. His first film as a writer/director, Truly, Madly, Deeply, starred Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman and won over audiences in Britain and America, garnering several prizes including a BAFTA and a Writer's Guild Award. Minghella has also directed Mr. Wonderful with Matt Dillon, Mary Louise Parker and William Hurt.

Anthony Minghella was born in 1954 on the Isle of Wight of Italian parents. Until 1981, he lectured on drama at the University of Hull. His stage plays are Child's Play, Whale Music, A Little Like Drowning, Two Planks and A Passion, Made in Bangkok and Love Bites. Minghella's television trilogy What If It's Raining? was acclaimed throughout Europe. He created and regularly contributed to the television series Inspector Morse, and wrote all nine of the short television films in The Storyteller series for Jim Henson and NBC, which won an Emmy and BAFTA Award as well as the Gold Medal at the New York International Film and Television Festival. Minghella's radio plays include Hang Up and Cigarettes and Chocolate.

Minghella was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Hull and the University of Southampton. Since 2000, he has been with Sydney Pollack joint-owner of Mirage Enterprises serving as executive producer on the company's films Heaven, Iris and The Quiet American. Anthony Minghella was recently named the head of the British Film Institute.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2004.

Anthony Minghella Facts

OccupationDirector, Screenwriter
BirthdayJanuary 6, 1954
SignCapricorn
BirthplaceRyde, England, United Kingdom
Date of deathMarch 18, 2008 (age 54)
Awards1997 Academy Awards: Best Director (for The English Patient)

Selected Filmography

Pilot
The English Patient
Cold Mountain
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Breaking and Entering
Mr. Wonderful
Truly Madly Deeply
Beckett on Film DVD Set
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