26 Facts About Anthony Minghella

1.

Anthony Minghella, was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter.

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2.

Anthony Minghella was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007.

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3.

Anthony Minghella won the Academy Award for Best Director for The English Patient.

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4.

Anthony Minghella was born in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England that is a popular holiday resort.

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5.

Anthony Minghella's family are well known on the Island, where they ran a cafe in Ryde until the 1980s and have run an eponymous business making and selling Italian-style ice cream since the 1950s.

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6.

Anthony Minghella's parents were Edoardo Minghella and Leeds-born Gloria Alberta (nee Arcari).

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7.

Anthony Minghella was one of five children, his sisters Gioia Minghella-Giddens, Edana Minghella and Loretta Minghella, and a brother Dominic Minghella who would become a screenwriter and producer.

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8.

Early interests suggested a possible career as a musician, with Anthony Minghella playing keyboards with local bands Earthlight and Dancer.

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9.

Anthony Minghella graduated after three years and stayed on to pursue a PhD.

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10.

Anthony Minghella taught at the university for several years, on Samuel Beckett and on the medieval theatre.

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11.

Anthony Minghella's debut work was a stage adaptation of Gabriel Josipovici's Mobius the Stripper and it was his Whale Music (1985) that brought him notice.

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12.

Anthony Minghella's double bill of Samuel Beckett's Play and Happy Days was his directorial debut and debut feature film as a director was A Little Like Drowning.

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13.

Anthony Minghella wrote several episodes of the ITV detective drama Inspector Morse and an episode of long-running ITV drama Boon.

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14.

Anthony Minghella's production starred Juliet Stevenson, Bill Nighy and Jenny Howe.

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15.

Anthony Minghella turned down an offer to direct another Inspector Morse to do the project, even though he believed that the Morse episode would have been a much higher-profile ll assignment.

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16.

Anthony Minghella received an Adapted Screenplay nomination for The Talented Mr Ripley.

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17.

Anthony Minghella vocally supported I Know I'm Not Alone, a film of musician Michael Franti's peacemaking excursions into Iraq, Palestine and Israel.

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18.

Anthony Minghella directed a party election broadcast for the Labour Party in 2005.

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19.

Anthony Minghella was honoured with the naming of The Anthony Minghella Theatre at the Quay Arts Centre.

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20.

Anthony Minghella made an appearance in the 2007 film Atonement as a television host interviewing the novelist central to the story.

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21.

Anthony Minghella shared credit with Michael Tolkin on the screenplay.

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22.

Anthony Minghella met his first wife, Yvonne Miller, when they were students.

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23.

Anthony Minghella and Miller eventually divorced and in 1985 Anthony Minghella married Hong Kong–born choreographer and dancer Carolyn Jane Choa.

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24.

Anthony Minghella's home had two double bedrooms dedicated to the display of Portsmouth memorabilia dating back to the club's founding in 1898.

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25.

Anthony Minghella died of a haemorrhage on 18 March 2008 in Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith, following an operation the previous week to remove cancer of the tonsils and neck.

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26.

Anthony Minghella is commemorated with a green plaque on The Avenues, Kingston upon Hull.

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