Director Blake Edwards dies at 88
December 16, 2010 | 10:01 am
Blake Edwards, the veteran writer-director whose films include the “Pink Panther” comedies, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Days of Wine and Roses” and “10” and whose legendary disputes with studio chiefs inspired his scathing Hollywood satire “S.O.B.” has died. He was 88.
Edwards, whose collaborations with his wife, Julie Andrews, included the 1982 comedy “Victor/Victoria,” died of of complications of pneumonia Wednesday evening at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said Gene Schwam, Edwards’ longtime publicist. Andrews and members of their immediate family were at his bedside.
Edwards scored his first box-office hit with “Operation Petticoat,” a 1959 comedy about a World War II submarine crew starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. But a turning point in Edwards’ film career came in 1961 with “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”