Max Minghella initially found being the son of Oscar-winner Anthony Minghella a hindrance to his acting career, but he is now proving to be a star in his own right
Max Minghella insists he never really wanted to be an actor. Growing up, he thought it was a faintly ridiculous thing to do. "I wanted to write in film or something like that," he says now. "I thought acting was an embarrassing thing to say you wanted to do, especially when you're young. It seemed really uncool."
Even as a teenager, Minghella had more experience than most about what such a profession might entail. As the son of the late, Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella, he spent much of his youth traipsing around film sets.
When he finally did decide to become an actor, after seeing This Is Our Youth at the National and "falling in love" with the play,...
Max Minghella insists he never really wanted to be an actor. Growing up, he thought it was a faintly ridiculous thing to do. "I wanted to write in film or something like that," he says now. "I thought acting was an embarrassing thing to say you wanted to do, especially when you're young. It seemed really uncool."
Even as a teenager, Minghella had more experience than most about what such a profession might entail. As the son of the late, Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella, he spent much of his youth traipsing around film sets.
When he finally did decide to become an actor, after seeing This Is Our Youth at the National and "falling in love" with the play,...
- 10/22/2011
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
Max Minghella credits his mother with inspiring him to become an actor - because his Oscar-winning dad Anthony Minghella refused to talk about films with him.
The 24 year old grew up watching his father write screenplays and direct movies including The English Patient - but he maintains it was his Hong Kong-born choreographer mum, Carolyn Choa, who sparked his love for acting.
Minghella explains, "My father was one of the most inspirational people in how I live my life but he really didn't like to talk much about film. The professions of a filmmaker and actor are so different that I didn't have a strong frame of reference at all. (But) I remember when I was three years old she (Choa) would review films and tell me all about the characters, which really influenced my imagination."...
The 24 year old grew up watching his father write screenplays and direct movies including The English Patient - but he maintains it was his Hong Kong-born choreographer mum, Carolyn Choa, who sparked his love for acting.
Minghella explains, "My father was one of the most inspirational people in how I live my life but he really didn't like to talk much about film. The professions of a filmmaker and actor are so different that I didn't have a strong frame of reference at all. (But) I remember when I was three years old she (Choa) would review films and tell me all about the characters, which really influenced my imagination."...
- 12/30/2009
- WENN
Oscar winning film director Anthony Minghella has died. He was 54.
A spokesman for the filmmaker confirmed his death on Tuesday.
According to Variety, Minghella suffered a brain haemorrhage at Charing Cross Hospital in London, where he had undergone a routine operation on his neck.
Minghella began his career writing scripts for British television programmes before his play Made In Bangkok found mainstream success in London's West End in 1986.
Almost a decade later, Minghella won a Best Director Academy Award for The English Patient.
He was also nominated for two Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars - for 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley and 2003's Cold Mountain.
Minghella was working on one of 15 short movies, collectively entitled New York, I Love You, at the time of his death.
The moviemaker was appointed a Cbe (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the British monarch's birthday honours list in 2001. He was also chairman of the British Film Institute.
Minghella leaves wife Carolyn Choa, son Max and daughter Hannah.
A spokesman for the filmmaker confirmed his death on Tuesday.
According to Variety, Minghella suffered a brain haemorrhage at Charing Cross Hospital in London, where he had undergone a routine operation on his neck.
Minghella began his career writing scripts for British television programmes before his play Made In Bangkok found mainstream success in London's West End in 1986.
Almost a decade later, Minghella won a Best Director Academy Award for The English Patient.
He was also nominated for two Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars - for 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley and 2003's Cold Mountain.
Minghella was working on one of 15 short movies, collectively entitled New York, I Love You, at the time of his death.
The moviemaker was appointed a Cbe (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the British monarch's birthday honours list in 2001. He was also chairman of the British Film Institute.
Minghella leaves wife Carolyn Choa, son Max and daughter Hannah.
- 3/18/2008
- WENN
British filmmaker Anthony Minghella, who won a Best Director Oscar in 1996 for The English Patient, has died, his London-based agent confirmed to the Associated Press. He was 54. He succumbed to a fatal hemorrhage early Tuesday morning at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, west London, his rep tells People. Minghella had an operation last week for a growth in his neck, which "seemed to have gone well." Minghella's other movies included 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, which made a star out of Jude Law, and 2003's Cold Mountain, which won an Oscar for its Supporting Actress Ren...
- 3/18/2008
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Oscar winning film director Anthony Minghella has died. He was 54.
A spokesman for the filmmaker confirmed his death on Tuesday.
Minghella began his career writing scripts for British television programmes before his play Made in Bangkok found mainstream success in London's West End in 1986.
Almost a decade later, Mighella won a Best Director Academy Award for The English Patient.
He was also nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley and 2003's Cold Mountain.
Minghella was filming one of 15 short movies, collectively entitled New York, I Love You, at the time of his death.
He was also chairman of the British Film Institute.
Minghella was appointed a Cbe (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the British monarch's birthday honours list in 2001.
Minghella leaves wife Carolyn Choa, son Max and daughter Hannah.
A spokesman for the filmmaker confirmed his death on Tuesday.
Minghella began his career writing scripts for British television programmes before his play Made in Bangkok found mainstream success in London's West End in 1986.
Almost a decade later, Mighella won a Best Director Academy Award for The English Patient.
He was also nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley and 2003's Cold Mountain.
Minghella was filming one of 15 short movies, collectively entitled New York, I Love You, at the time of his death.
He was also chairman of the British Film Institute.
Minghella was appointed a Cbe (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the British monarch's birthday honours list in 2001.
Minghella leaves wife Carolyn Choa, son Max and daughter Hannah.
- 3/18/2008
- WENN
Director Anthony Minghella, who won an Academy Award for directing the 1996 epic The English Patient, has died at age 54, his agent announced today. Variety reports that a spokesman for Mr. Minghella said he suffered a brain hemorrhage on Tuesday morning at Charing Cross Hospital in London, while in for a routine neck operation. A director who worked in theater and television (most notably for the series Inspector Morse and the lush, haunting The Storyteller series), Minghella made his feature film directorial debut with the ghost story/romance Truly, Madly, Deeply, which starred Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. The film won Minghella a BAFTA award for his screenplay and effectively launched his film career. The little-seen indie romance Mr. Wonderful followed in 1993, but it was three years later that Minghella had his biggest success with The English Patient, an adaptation of the novel by Michael Ondaatje. Aggressively marketed by Miramax and arriving near the height of the independent film movement (though the film, with its epic scope, pushed the definition of indie filmmaking), the film became a surprise success, ultimately taking in $78 million in the US and winning a whopping nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture as well as Director for Minghella. Three of the film's stars, Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche, were Oscar-nominated, with Binoche taking home the Best Supporting Actress award in a shocking upset over Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall.
Minghella followed up that success in 1999 with the moody thriller The Talented Mr, Ripley, another book-to-film adaptation based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. Though the film starred high-profile actors Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, it was the then little-known Jude Law who walked away with the film with his role as a callow, rich playboy. The film earned Law a Best Supporting Actor nomination and Minghella another Adapted Screenplay nod. Minghella tried to replicate his successful literary adaptation formula with Cold Mountain, a high-profile version of the bestselling Civil War novel that, ironically, was filmed partly in Romania. Despite another big (and some said, overly aggressive) push by Miramax and a cast that included Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the movie was considered a major under-performer, though it did earn $95 million in the US alone and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Zellweger. Major nominations for Best Picture or Director, however, failed to materialize. Minghella worked on a smaller scale with the London-based drama Breaking and Entering, which reteamed him with both Law and Binoche, and had just completed filming on The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the pilot for a TV series based on the novel by Alexander McCall Smith. Beginning in 2000, Minghella also became a producer, with credits including The Quiet American, The Interpreter, and the recent Oscar winner Michael Clayton. In 2005, Minghella also staged an acclaimed version of the opera Madame Butterfly, which played at the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.
Minghella is survived by his parents, his siblings in the entertainment industry Dominic Minghella and Edana Minghella, two other sisters, his wife, choreographer Carolyn Choa, and two children, Max Minghella and Hannah Minghella. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
Minghella followed up that success in 1999 with the moody thriller The Talented Mr, Ripley, another book-to-film adaptation based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. Though the film starred high-profile actors Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, it was the then little-known Jude Law who walked away with the film with his role as a callow, rich playboy. The film earned Law a Best Supporting Actor nomination and Minghella another Adapted Screenplay nod. Minghella tried to replicate his successful literary adaptation formula with Cold Mountain, a high-profile version of the bestselling Civil War novel that, ironically, was filmed partly in Romania. Despite another big (and some said, overly aggressive) push by Miramax and a cast that included Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Philip Seymour Hoffman, the movie was considered a major under-performer, though it did earn $95 million in the US alone and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Zellweger. Major nominations for Best Picture or Director, however, failed to materialize. Minghella worked on a smaller scale with the London-based drama Breaking and Entering, which reteamed him with both Law and Binoche, and had just completed filming on The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the pilot for a TV series based on the novel by Alexander McCall Smith. Beginning in 2000, Minghella also became a producer, with credits including The Quiet American, The Interpreter, and the recent Oscar winner Michael Clayton. In 2005, Minghella also staged an acclaimed version of the opera Madame Butterfly, which played at the English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.
Minghella is survived by his parents, his siblings in the entertainment industry Dominic Minghella and Edana Minghella, two other sisters, his wife, choreographer Carolyn Choa, and two children, Max Minghella and Hannah Minghella. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
- 3/18/2008
- IMDb News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.