Legendary Pink Panther, Comedy & Film Director Blake Edwards Dead at Age 88

Talk about the loss of one of the best writer/directors of comedies ever. An SOB, Cool Cat and 10 rolled all up into one …

Julie Andrews & Blake Edwards, 1973
Rest in Peace Blake Edwards: 1922 – 2010

Blake Edwards, the legendary Hollywood comedy director has passed away at age 88 from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in Santa Monica, California with his wife and children at his bedside. Aside from his acclaimed directing, Blake Edwards might best be known for his 40 year marriage with Academy Award winning English actress Julie Andrews. Oh how I have laughed at this man’s films over the years, they still crack me up like I just heard them for the first time … REST IN PEACE

Hear Blake Edwards discuss how he met Julie Andrews

Hat Tip: AOL News

Edwards not only directed comedy classic like The Pink Panther series, he also directed such classic films ‘Like Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and ‘Days of Wine and Roses’. Who could also forget the movie that put Bo Derek on the map and changed how we all rated woman, “10″, as well as other over the top moview like ‘SOB’ and ‘Victor/Victoria’.

His publicist, Gene Schwam, said the cause was complications of pneumonia. Mr. Edwards’s wife, the actress Julie Andrews, and other family members were at his side at St. John’s Health Center, Mr. Schwam said.

What the critic Pauline Kael once described as Mr. Edwards’s “love of free-for-all lunacy” was flaunted in good movies and bad ones …

Blake Edwards was born William Blake Crump on July 26, 1922, in Tulsa, Okla. He became Blake McEdwards when he was 4, after his mother, Lilian, had married Jack McEdwards, an assistant director and movie production manager. Having joined the Coast Guard after high school, Mr. Edwards was seriously injured when, after a night of alcohol-fueled partying, he drunkenly dived into a shallow swimming pool. He spent five months in traction at the Long Beach Naval Hospital.

From the UK Telegraph:

When he was three years old Blake’s family moved to California, and he was brought up in Los Angeles and educated at Beverly Hills High School. While there he worked as a child actor, appearing in numerous B-pictures, but claimed that he “never wanted to act seriously enough to make a career of it”. He left school in 1940 and continued to accept small roles — often as a soldier — in films such as Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942), Marine Raiders (1944) and A Wing and a Prayer (1944).

During the war he served in the US Coast Guard and was badly injured in a diving accident. After a lengthy recuperation he decided to try to re-enter the film industry, writing a low-budget Western with his friend John Champion and approaching Monogram for backing. When the company turned down the project, Edwards and Champion raised the money themselves, making their debuts as producers with Panhandle in 1948.

More great clips from Blake Edward’s The Pink Panther.