BLAKE EDWARDS Biography - Theater, Opera and Movie personalities

 
 

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BLAKE EDWARDS

Name: Blake Edwards                                                               
Birth name: William Blake Crump                                                   
Born: 26 July 1922 Tulsa, Oklahoma                                                 
                                                                                   
Blake Edwards (born July 26, 1922) is an Academy Award-winning American film       
director, screenwriter, and producer.                                             
                                                                                   
Born William Blake Crump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Edwards was the son of a stage       
director. He began his career as an actor and script-writer, including seven       
screenplays for Richard Quine. His early career as a script-writer was for radio. 
His hard-boiled private detective scripts for Richard Diamond, Private Detective   
became NBC's answer to Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, reflecting Edwards' unique   
humor. Edwards also created, wrote and directed the 1959 TV series Peter Gunn,     
with music by Henry Mancini. Mancini's association with Edwards continued in his   
film work, significantly contributing to their success.                           
                                                                                   
Edwards' most popular films have been comedies, the alcoholism-themed melodrama   
Days of Wine and Roses being a notable exception. His most fruitful               
collaboration has been with Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther movies. Efforts to   
revive the Panther franchise after the death of Sellers in 1980 met with little   
critical or commercial success, with the exception of the 2006 film (which         
Edwards did not direct), which has spawned a 2008 sequel.                         
                                                                                   
In 2004 Edwards received an Academy Honorary Award for cumulative achievements     
over the course of his film career. He was also portrayed by John Lithgow in the   
film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, documenting comic actor Sellers' life   
and his friendship with Edwards.                                                   
                                                                                   
Edwards' second wife (from 1969) is Julie Andrews, who has appeared in a number   
of his films including Darling Lili, 10, Victor/Victoria and the                   
autobiographical satire S.O.B., in which Andrews played a character who was a     
caricature of herself. In 1995, he wrote the book for the stage musical           
adaptation of Victor/Victoria, also starring Andrews.                             
                                                                                   
Edwards and Andrews have five children together, including two daughters:         
Joanna and Amy. Edwards also has two children from a previous marriage: actress   
Jennifer Edwards, and music video director Geoffrey Edwards.