Bye Bye Blake Edwards

Edwards’s distinguished 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.

On December 15, 2010, Edwards died  in Santa Monica, California at the age of 88.
His wife and children were at his side.

He will forever be associated with the eight Pink Panther movies he made between 1963 and 1993, especially the five starring Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. It was a fruitful if complicated relationship.

“We clicked on comedy,” Edwards says, “and we were lucky we found each other, because we both had so much respect for it. We also had an ability to come up with funny things and great situations that had to be explored. But in that exploration there would oftentimes be disagreement…. But I couldn’t resist those moments when we jelled. And if you ask me who contributed most to those things, it couldn’t have happened unless both of us were involved, even though it wasn’t always happy.”

The director maintains that Clouseau’s appeal, then and now, lies in his perseverance. “Thou shalt not give up,” says Edwards, who co-created the character. “That is the essence of Clouseau. If you don’t have that, it’s hard to find a reason for him. He never thinks he’s going to fail. I really feel that’s my secret.”

One film that didn’t have a male hero–well not exactly was Victoria/Victoria (1982), which starred Julie Andrews, Edwards’ wife of almost 40 years, as a down on her luck cabaret singer in 1930s Paris who becomes a sensation when she starts performing as a man.

Edwards directed his wife in six films, but insists it was no big deal. “I wish I could say that it was that different, but it wasn’t,” he maintains. “When we were working, she was a leading lady that I would go home and sleep with. We didn’t have any arguments professionally that I can recall. It was always very pleasant.”

Victor/Victoria was a frothy tip-of-the-hat to another of the director’s idols: the incomparable Ernst Lubitsch. “Sure it was an homage to Lubitsch,” Edwards says. “You would be a fool not to acknowledge—if only to yourself—your betters. But I didn’t go in saying I was going to mimic Lubitsch or be so blatant as to copy him. The film was a kind of silent acknowledgement to the genius of Lubitsch, the style and sophisticated humor and sexuality. I loved Lubitsch from the first frame I ever saw. I loved the characters. They made me feel at home.”

PARTNERS IN CRIME: (bottom) Although they had a highly contentious
relationship, Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers had great comic chemistry on
the set. (Photo Credits: BFI. (top) Photofest)