A writer-director-producer who cut his teeth under the studio system before rebelling against its strictures, Blake Edwards’ resume encompasses westerns (1948's PANHANDLE), romances (1961's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S), dramas (1962's THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES) and sexually-charged thrillers (1962's EXPERIMENT IN TERROR), but he is best remembered for reintroducing physical comedy to the mod 1960s, frequently for belly laughs, occasionally with social commentary, and often with cultivated wit.
William Blake Crump was born in Tulsa but his father left the family shortly thereafter. Blake was raised in Tulsa by an aunt and uncle until his mother married movie production manager Jack McEdward who took Blake to live in Hollywood about age 5.
Blake escaped an unhappy childhood in Los Angeles at the local movie theatre where he fell in love with the silent film comedians that would influence so much of his work. After a stint in the Coast Guard during World War II, Blake made his foray into the movie business, first as an actor, more successfully as a writer, and eventually as the director of the phenomenally successful PINK PANTHER movies, starring Peter Sellers, which spanned eight films in thirty years (1963-1993).
Inspired by the slapstick of Laurel and Hardy, and mentored by 1930s screwball comedy director Leo McCarey, Blake's best films married sophistication and silliness. Though he fought hard for creative control, epic endeavors like THE GREAT RACE (1965) and his World War I spy spoof DARLING LILI (1970) went over budget and were not commercially successful.
Married to Julie Andrews in 1969, with whom he made seven films, including the gender-bending VICTOR VICTORIA (1982), Blake received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2004.