Legendary film director Blake Edwards, who died on Thursday aged 88, was a veteran of the big screen. His family history extended virtually the entire length of American motion pictures.
He was born William Blake Crump on July 26, 1922, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother remarried to Jack McEdwards, a production manager in Hollywood.
His step-grandfather was J. Gordon Edwards, a pioneering director of silent films, including more than 20 with the exotic vamp Theda Bara.
The young Blake and his family moved to Hollywood three years later, and he grew up on his father’s movie sets.
Blake Edwards began in films as an actor, playing small roles in such movies as A Guy Named Joe and Ten Gentlemen From West Point.With John Champion, he wrote a Western, Panhandle, which he produced and acted in for the quickie studio, Monogram. He followed with Stampede.
In 1947, Mr Edwards turned to radio and created the hard-boiled “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” for Dick Powell; it was converted to television in 1957, starring Mr Powell with Mary Tyler Moore as his secretary, whose face is never seen on-screen.
Peter Gunn in 1967 marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between Mr Edwards and Mr Mancini, who composed melodic scores and songs for most of Mr Edwards’ films.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961 established Mr Edwards as a stylish director who could combine comedy with bittersweet romance. His next two films proved his versatility: The suspenseful Experiment in Terror (1962) and Days of Wine and Roses (1963), the story of a couple’s alcoholism, with Jack Lemmon in his first dramatic role.
The Great Race, about an auto race in the early 1900s, marked Mr Edwards’s first attempt at a big-budget spectacle. He spent Warner Bros’ money lavishly, raising the ire of studio boss Jack Warner. The 1965 release proved a modest success.
Mr Edwards’s disdain for the studios reached a peak in the 1970 Darling Lili, a First World War romance starring his new wife British born Julie Andrews, star of The Sound of Music, and Rock Hudson.The long, expensive Paris location infuriated the Paramount bosses.
The movie flopped, continuing Ms Andrews’s decline from her position as Hollywood’s No. 1 star.
For a decade, Mr Edwards’s only hits were Pink Panther sequels. Then came 10, which he also produced and wrote. The sex comedy became a box-office winner, creating a new star in Bo Derek and restoring the director’s reputation. He scored again in 1982 with Victor/Victoria, with Ms Andrews playing a woman who poses as a (male) female impersonator.
His later films became more personal, particularly the 1986 That’s Life, which he wrote with his psychiatrist.