Anthony Minghella
Although Anthony Minghella is known best as a director and screenwriter, it was his talents as a playwright that first brought him critical acclaim. Born in the Isle of Wight, UK in 1954 to parents who owned an ice cream factory, Minghella was interested in cinema but decided to study drama and English at the University of Hull, where he later lectured until 1981. He began writing for theater, including Whale Music (1981), and won the London Theatre Critic’s award for Most Promising Playwright and Best Play for A Little Drowning and Made in Bangkok respectively. During the 1980s he wrote for television, including the British shows Grange Hill and Inspector Morse, as well as Jim Henson’s The Storyteller. Minghella’s first Hollywood film was Mr. Wonderful (1993). His three next movies combined his talents as director and screenwriter in the adaptations of the novels The English Patient (1996), for which he won an Oscar for Best Director, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Cold Mountain (2003). Since then he has also produced movies such as Iris and The Quiet American, and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Minghella is chairman of the British Film Institute.
