Blake Edwards Dies

Filmmaker Blake Edwards has died.

The Hollywood movie director and Oscar-winner –- best known for his work on The Pink Panther and Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s – – passed away in Los Angeles Thursday morning due to complications from pneumonia.

He was 88.

Blake was born in Oklahoma in 1922. He and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was three. It wasn’t long before he developed a love of the cinema. In 1969, he married British actress Dame Julie Andrews and the pair adopted two Vietnemese orphans, Amy Leigh and Joanna Lynn. Edwards also had two biological children, Jennifer and Geoffrey, with his first wife of 14 years Patricia. Dame Julie and all four of his children were by Edwards’ side when he died this morning.

Edwards was also credited as a writer and producer on a number of film and TV projects. Discussing his comedy work, the lensman once said: “I would not be able to get through life had I not been able to view its painfulness in a comedic way.”

At the time of his death, Edwards was working on two Broadway musicals, one based on his famous Pink Panther movies. The other, Big Rosemary, was to be an original comedy set during Prohibition era,