Bryan Forbes

Bryan Forbes, one of the most creative forces in the movie world for years, has died aged 86. The director, actor and writer was considered one of Hollywood's finest in the 1960s and he helmed the original version of The Stepford Wives (1974) before turning to a life of writing books, both fiction and memoirs.

As The Guardian point it, the turning point in Forbes career came when he formed the independent company Beaver Films with the great Richard Attenborough in 1958. Forbes received an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA award for the company's first project, The Angry Silence (1960). Attenborough played a factory worker persecuted for not joining a strike. 

Forbes went on to write The League of Gentleman (1960) and directed Whistle Down The Wind (1961) about children who mistake an escape convict for Jesus. For 'The Stepford Wives,' Forbes directed a screenplay by William Goldman about Joanna Eberhart, a woman who moves to the quaint town Stepford, Connecticut with her family before discovering that a sinister truth that lies behind the perfect behavior of the female residents. The movie was remade in 2004 by Frank Oz, starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick and Bette Midler.

Continue reading: Creative Genius Bryan Forbes, Director Of Stepford Wives, Dies Aged 86

The revered film director and writer Bryan Forbes has died at the age of 86, following a prolonged illness. Forbes was best known for work like the classic 70s horror The Stepford Wives and Whistle Down The Wind. Forbes began his career as an actor and screenwriter and went on to become one of the biggest and most respected names in British cinema.

A friend of Forbes’, Matthew D’Ancona said: "Bryan Forbes was a titan of cinema, known and loved by people around the world in the film and theatre industries and known in other fields including politics. He is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that he died surrounded by his family."

In 2004, Forbes won a CBE for services to the arts and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. He was born in 1926 in Stratford, London and began acting in the early 1940s. He started with a number of supporting roles in notable British films including An Inspector Calls and The Colditz Story, but soon found bigger success as a screenwriter and director. His notable screenwriting credits included I Was Monty's Double (1958) and The League of Gentlemen (1959).

Continue reading: Filmmaking Pioneer Bryan Forbes Dies At Age 86