Polly Platt
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Born on January 29, 1939 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, United States.
Polly Platt was an American film producer, production designer and screenwriter. Her screenwriting credits included Pretty Baby (1978), on which she was also an associate producer, as well as Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff, and A Map of the World. Platt worked extensively with James L. Brooks throughout her career. She was the executive vice president of his production company Gracie Films from 1985 to 1995. Platt was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Brooks’ film Terms of Endearment (1983). She also co-produced many of the films he worked on, which Gracie made, including Broadcast News (1987), The War of the Roses (1989) and Bottle Rocket (1996), as well as producing Say Anything… (1989). Platt gave Brooks the nine-panel Life in Hell cartoon “The Los Angeles Way of Death” by cartoonist Matt Groening. She suggested that the two meet and that Brooks produce an animated TV version of Groening’s characters; the meeting spawned a series of short cartoons about the Simpson family, which aired as part of The Tracy Ullman Show and later became The Simpsons.
Platt died aged 72 on July 27, 2011 in New York, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Comments OffSidney Lumet
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Born on June 25, 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his name. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982). He did not win an individual Academy Award, although he did receive an Academy Honorary Award and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as Network, which was nominated for 10, winning 4.
Lumet died aged 86 on April 9, 2011 in his residence in Manhattan, New York from lymphoma.
Comments OffGary Winick
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Born March 31, 1961.
Gary Winick died of pneumonia in a hospital after a long battle with brain cancer on February 27, 2011 at age 49, shortly before his 50th birthday.
Winick was an American film director and producer who directed films such as Tadpole (2002) and 13 Going on 30 (2004). He also produced films including Pieces of April (2003) for which Patricia Clarkson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and November (2004) through his New York City-based independent film production company InDigEnt (founded in 1999; stands for Independent Digital Entertainment). He won the 2003 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for producing Personal Velocity.
Comments OffPeter Yates
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Born Peter James Yates, July 24, 1929. Aldershot, Hampshire, England
Yates died in London on 9 January 2011. He was 81 years old.
Peter Yates first film as director, was a “lightweight” vehicle for Cliff Richard. Yates had directed the original Royal Court production of N. F. Simpson’s play One Way Pendulum and was chosen to make the film version released in 1964. Robbery (1967), a crime thriller, is a fictionalised version of the Great Train Robbery of 1963. This led to Bullitt (1968), of which Bruce Weber has written, “Mr. Yates’s reputation probably rests most securely on “Bullitt” (1968), his first American film — and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic.”
Comments OffBlake Edwards-Director
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William Blake Crump
Born on July 26, 1922 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
On December 15, 2010, at the age of 88, Blake Edwards died of complications of pneumonia at the Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. His wife and children were at his side.
Blake Edwards’ career began in the 1940s as an actor but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures. He used his writing skills to begin producing and directing, with some of his best films including:Experiment in Terror, The Great Race, and the hugely successful Pink Panther film series with the British comedian Peter Sellers. Often thought of as primarily a director of comedies, he was also renowned for his dramatic work, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Days of Wine and Roses. His greatest successes, however, have been his comedies, and most of his films were either musicals, melodramas, slapstick comedies, and thrillers.
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