- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)
- Anthony Minghella was the son of immigrants from Italy, who own an ice-cream factory on the Isle of Wight, where Anthony was born on January 6, 1954. He and his two siblings, Edana Minghella and Dominic Minghella, grew up there, a popular British holiday spot. After graduating from the University of Hull, Minghella took a position as a university lecturer, but quit academia to focus on the theater and songwriting. He oversaw the music in many of his movies.
Minghella was employed as a scriptwriter on the British TV series Maybury (1981) and Inspector Morse (1987) and, as a script editor on the British TV series Grange Hill (1978), before succeeding as a dramatist in the West End, London's equivalent of Broadway. In 1984, the London Theatre Critics named him Most Promising Playwright of the Year and, two years later, his drama "Made in Bangkok" won the the London Theatre Critics' award for best play.
An Anthony Minghella film assured movie-goers would enjoy a film blessed with a literate script, superlative performances and first-rate production values. His great craftsmanship was apparent from the beginning, with the bittersweet comedy Truly Madly Deeply (1990), in which the ghost of Alan Rickman comes back to his lady love, Juliet Stevenson, with unintended consequences. The theme of a ghostly love also was present in The English Patient (1996) his greatest success.
It is for that film he will be best remembered. Minghella claimed that with The English Patient (1996), which won nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, that he had reached the heights of his directing career.
In addition to his theater and film awards, in 2001, Anthony Minghella was appointed a Commander of the British Empire, a step just below knighthood, in the Queen's Birthday Honors List.
Anthony Minghella died of a hemorrhage on the morning of March 18, 2008 at Charing Cross Hospital in London, England. The 54-year-old Minghella had undergone an operation to remove a growth on his neck the previous week. He was survived by his wife, Carolyn Choa, and their two children, Max Minghella, who is an actor, and Hannah Minghella, who worked as a production assistant.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood
- SpousesCarolyn Choa(? - March 18, 2008) (his death, 2 children)Yvonne Miller (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- RelativesDominic Minghella(Sibling)Edana Minghella(Sibling)Dante Minghella(Niece or Nephew)
- Frequently worked with Jude Law
- Kate Winslet dedicated her first Oscar win for The Reader (2008) to Minghella and his partner in Mirage, Sydney Pollack.
- In 2000, he became partners with Sydney Pollack in Mirage Enterprises. They died less than three months apart.
- He directed 5 actors to Oscar nominations: Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Renée Zellweger, Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas. Binoche and Zellwegger won for their supporting turns in The English Patient (1996) and Cold Mountain (2003), respectively.
- Father of Max Minghella and Hannah Minghella, who worked as production assistant on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999).
- At the time of his death, he had written the segment of New York, I Love You (2008) which features Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie and John Hurt. Due to illness, he arranged for it to be cast and directed by Shekhar Kapur. The film was dedicated to Minghella's memory. His next feature film as writer/director was to have been an adaptation of Liz Jensen's novel The Ninth Life of Louis Drax.
- The only lesson to extract from any civil war is that it's pointless and futile and ugly, and that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about it. There are heroes, but the causes are never heroic.
- When I became the chair of the British Film Institute, I didn't understand how much of my time would be taken up with trying to make a case for the British Film Institute: what it's for, why it exists, why it needs its money.
- I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.
- [from his Oscar acceptance speech, 1997] It's my daughter's 18th birthday today - happy birthday Hannah! This is a great day for the Isle of Wight today.
- The thing that is most notably different about working in the US is that if you are embraced then you are completely accepted. It was quite giddy because you'd be there and Meryl Streep would come on the phone and you'd think it was your mother pretending to be Meryl Streep or maybe your sister, but it was really Meryl Streep. [2008]
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