Blake Edwards

Born on July 26, 1922 in Tulsa (Oklahoma), William Blake Crump –his real name– comes from a caste of filmmakers, since his father, Jack McEdwards –assistant director– was in turn the son of director J. Gordon Edwards , pioneer of silent cinema. He also has a sister, Jennifer Edwards , who was into acting. From a very young age he was clear that his thing was writing. He became a screenwriter by chance, when he went to pick up his then girlfriend from work. She was preparing a script for the radio, but Edwards decided to give her a hand by completely rewriting it. The girl’s boss liked his text so much, he offered Edwards to become his agent, and from then on he got her regular jobs writing radio and television shows.

But Edwards preferred the big screen. Since they didn’t recruit him as a movie scriptwriter, he decided to take advantage of his family contacts to put his head in, acting as an extra, the only job they gave him. The tireless Edwards spent almost the entire 1940s as an extra, in films by directors he admired, seeking to bond and be given a chance. He appeared briefly in titles such as Ten Heroes from West Point , by Henry Hathaway –which marked his debut–, Two in Heaven , by Victor Fleming , They Weren’t Essential , by John Ford , or The Best Years of Our Lives , by William Wyler .. As his career was not evolving, he decided to produce one of his scripts himself, which led to the unknown western Panhandle , from 1948. Incredible as it may seem, Edwards was not the only extra with creative concerns. On the sets he had met another guy who used the same tactics to make his way, the then very young  Richard Quine (later responsible for titles like I fell in love with a witch ), with whom he wrote the script for Venga tu sonrisa , which was the opera prima as principal of Edwards. It would not be his only joint work, as they also wrote between the two of them He Laughed Last –again directed by Edwards– and several Quine films ( The mysterious lady in black, Marino al agua and My sister Elena ).

Following the drama The Terrible Mr. Cory and several minor comedies, Edwards created the popular television series Peter Gunn , which marked his first meeting with one of his key collaborators, legendary composer Henry Mancini , who continued to collaborate with him until the musician’s death. in 1994. Edwards’ first great film success, which was the hilarious Operation Pacific , with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis as captain and first officer of a submarine that ends up painted pink, during World War II, already had music by the great Mancini. Right after he directed the bittersweet Breakfast at Tiffany ‘s, a free adaptation of one of Truman Capote ‘s best-known works , which is undoubtedly one of the filmmaker’s best titles. Audrey Hepburn played the memorable Holly Golightly, a frivolous and carefree woman in search of happiness. For this film, Henry Mancini co-wrote the legendary song ‘Moon River’ with Johnny Mercer . The film, from 1961, opens for Edwards the most memorable stage of his filmography, which spanned the first half of the 1960s. He shot two excellent titles with actress Lee Remick , the thriller Blackmail against a Woman , where he was accompanied by a memorable Glenn Ford , and Days of Wine and Roses, one of the most overwhelming cinematic portraits of the consequences of alcoholism, where the actress had a huge Jack Lemmon at her side , proving his worth for the drama. They are followed by one of the greatest comedy film successes of all time, The Pink Panther , a crazed film that will go down in history as Peter Sellers ‘ character , Inspector Clouseau, a clumsy policeman –secondary on this occasion– who tries to capture a a white glove thief nicknamed ‘The Ghost’, who is immersed in the theft of ‘The Pink Panther’, a jewel of great value. Edwards would immediately recover the character, in The New Case of Inspector Clouseau , and would close the decade with The Race of the Century.(a comedy road movie that parodies various genres), What did you do in the war, daddy? and the exceptional The Party , with Peter Sellers as an extra mistakenly invited to the party of a Hollywood producer who has ruined a movie.

Divorced from his wife, Patricia Walker (occasional actress in titles such as Sailor Overboard ), Blake Edwards married Julie Andrews in 1969 , who from then on would become his favorite actress, in titles such as Tamarind Seed (a drama co -starring Omar Sharif ), 10, the perfect woman , the disastrous portrait of the world of cinema SOB (You are honest Bandits) , Víctor or Victoria (where I was a woman who pretended to be a homosexual) and My problems with women , remake from The Lover of Loveby Truffaut. For a long time, the only Edwards films without Andrews are his numerous sequels to The Pink Panther , a saga that he brought back whenever he was in need of money, and in which he maintained a certain level at first, until he ran out of formula. Peter Sellers had given up the character, which was played by Alan Arkin in the boring Inspector Clouseau: King of Danger . But he returned at Edwards’ request, in The Return of the Pink Panther , The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and Revenge of the Pink Panther . After the death of the memorable British comedian, Edwards did not have many qualms about continuing to exploit the goose that laid the golden eggs withOn the Trail of the Pink Panther , a supposed tribute to the actor, where he appeared through discarded archive images from other films. In The Curse of the Pink Panther , he investigates the disappearance of Clouseau’s American cousin, Sergeant Clifton Sleigh ( Ted Wass ). The filmmaker said goodbye to the saga with the mediocre Son of the Pink Panther , where the impassive Sellers (who used to remain serious, pretending nothing was wrong, even though the world was collapsing around him) was paradoxically replaced by the gesticulating Italian comedian Roberto Benigni , whose character was the inspector’s son. Edwards himself was also a scriptwriter for some episodes of the animated television seriesThe Pink Panther (1969) , starring the feline who became popular with the animated credits of the saga.

In the 80s, Blake Edwards shot the elegant and inspired Mickey and Maude , in which he started from a script in which he had not intervened – something not very usual in his career. But his later run is generally not up to the task of the director of Breakfast at Tiffany ‘s , who ran out of steam quite a bit, resorting frequently to crude humor. The pleasant Blind Date stands out , his last great success, an unconfessed remake of La fiera de mi niña and ¿Qué me pasa, doctor? (of which he steals the schematic and some jokes). It was the first starring role in the cinema of the then televised Bruce Willis , accompanied by a hilarious Kim Basinger .Murder in Beverly Hills , The Great Stranger , A Gray Hair in the Air and A Very Doubtful Blonde are pretty disappointing, although they always have some funny moments. Edwards’ last work before retirement was a television remake of Victor or Victoria . For the original film, he obtained his only Oscar nomination, in the category of best screenplay, although in 2004 he was awarded the statuette, on an honorary basis. He died on December 15, 2010.