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' , who worked as a production assistant.
Born to Edward Minghella, who was Italian-Scottish, and his wife Gloria, whose ancestors came from the village of Valvori near Rome; they own an ice cream factory on the Isle of Wight.
After attending the University of Hull (East Yorkshire/Humberside, England), he briefly worked as a university professor where he started writing music and plays. He won the London Theater Critics Award in 1984 for Most Promising Playwright and in 1986 for Best Play with "Made In Bangkok".
He was awarded the CBE in the 2001 Queens Birhtday Honours List for his services to film drama.
In 1984, the London Theatre Critics named him Most Promising Playwright of the Year.
He directed 5 actors to Oscar nominations: Ralph Fiennes , Jude Law , Rene Zellweger , Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas. Binoche and Zellwegger won for their supporting turns in The English Patient and Cold Mountain , respectively.
Brother of writers Edana Minghella and Dominic Minghella.
Winner of the Giles Cooper Award in 1988 for "Cigarettes and Chocolate".
As he was a big supporter of soccer club Portsmouth FC, his home had two double bedrooms dedicated to the display of the clubs memorabilia.
Father of Max Minghella and Hannah Minghella , who worked as production assistant on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley .
In 2000, he became partners with Sydney Pollack in Mirage Enterprises. They died less than three months apart.
He was a friend of Tony Blair. In 2005, he directed a party election broadcast for the Labour Party featuring Blair and Gordon Brown.
Kate Winslet dedicated her first Oscar win for The Reader to Minghella and his partner in Mirage, Sydney Pollack.
His favourite piece of music was the aria Mache dich, mein Herze, rein from the St Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. It features in The Talented Mr. Ripley in the scene when Ripley sets out from New York to travel to Italy.
At the time of his death, he had written the segment of New York, I Love You 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 Minghellas 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 five films that most influenced the director Anthony Minghella: I vitelloni , The Godfather: Part II , Lalbero degli zoccoli , Manhattan and La double vie de Vronique .
After completing Truly Madly Deeply , Minghella wrote a screenplay titled The Seven Deadly Sins in which the sins were to be portrayed by animatronics from the Jim Henson Creature Shop. The film remained in pre-production for at least ten years, in which Minghella kept working on the script. At first, Duncan Kenworthy was attached to produce and later Saul Zaentz. Originally Minghella was set to direct, but later he was replaced by Stanley Donen. The film remains unproduced.
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.
I want to feel in film. I want to understand, and I want to see the,parallels.
