Blake Edwards Biography

Blake Edwards
writer, producer and director
Born on July 26, 1922 in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA)

Blake Edwards started out as an actor when he was twenty-three. He worked as a radio scriptwriter and then as a television director, meeting musician Henry Mancini, who was to compose the theme to THE PINK PANTHER years later.

Brought up in Hollywood, Blake Edwards naturally took up a career in the movie industry, directing his first feature film BRING YOUR SMILE ALONG in 1955. “I was raised in a family working in cinema, he explained in 2004. My father was a film production manager and a first assistant director. And my grandfather was probably the greatest director of his time. Obviously I took an interest in that.” Blake Edwards’ grandfather was J. Gordon Edwards, director of silent films in the 1920s.

His next two films, MISTER CORY (1957) and OPERATION PETTICOAT (1959) reached out to a wide audience. His success was confirmed with BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S starring Audrey Hepburn (1961) and DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962) starring Jack Lemmon.

His collaboration with Peter Sellers, the unforgettable Inspector Clouseau in THE PINK PANTHER (1963), brought him international recognition. From 1963 to 1978, Blake Edwards wrote and directed seven feature films with the lumbering French detective. The duo also came out with the crazy film THE PARTY (1968), in which Peter Sellers plays an Indian actor who collects blunders during a party in Hollywood. After Peter Sellers died, Blake Edwards added a new episode to the series, TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER (1982), by using footage from before the actor’s demise.
He experienced a few ups and downs in his career. For instance, his musical DARLING LILI (1970) flopped and his film 10 (1979), with statuesque Bo Derek) unleashed the critics’ sarcastic comments.

In 1982, Blake Edwards enjoyed success anew with VICTOR VICTORIA, a libertine feature film about a female singer who dresses up as a man… who himself tries to pass off as a woman. He was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Script category and was awarded a César for Best Foreign Film. In the film the director stages the English star of MARY POPPINS (1964), Julie Andrews, who had been his wife since 1969. He would say that he had met her in wonderfully Hollywood-style circumstances, i.e. when he was going to see his shrink as she herself was leaving the analyst’s office.

In 2004, Blake Edwards received an Oscar crowning his career as a whole. During the ceremony, as a delirious director, he acted as an old dotard and went through the stage in some electric wheelchair, which ended up crashing into a cardboard setting.
Blake Edwards passed away on December 15, 2010 in Santa Monica (California).