The opportunity to have a lengthy sit-down with one of comedy’s master directors was something I couldn’t turn down. It was 2004, and Blake Edwards was about to receive an honorary Oscar–his first. In tribute to his recent passing, here’s a look back:
Perhaps Julie Andrews has the best line on Blake Edwards, her husband of nearly 35 years. “He’s like Mel Brooks and so many writers of his era or genre. He pushes boundaries one step further than most people,” says the legendary star of stage and screen. “He’s one of the few triple threat talents, a director- writer-producer who has done everything from marvelous comedies to musicals to dramas to tense thrillers, and all of them so beautifully shot and edited.”
Sunday night at the Kodak Theater, the triple threat Edwards will take the stage to receive this year’s honorary Oscar, his first Academy Award in a film career that began with 1947’s “Panhandle”—a low-budget Western in which he co-wrote, produced, directed and starred—and goes on to include such classics as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Pink Panther” films, “10,” “Victor/Victoria” and “S.O.B.”
“It’s great, obviously,” Edwards said in a rare, wide-ranging interview. “It’s just wonderful after all this time that I can be acknowledged.” In more than five decades, he has directed 49 films, many of which he wrote and produced, pictures that have grossed more than $1.5 billion at the boxoffice.
Yet he’s known for often bucking the system, and once became so disenchanted with Hollywood that he and his family decamped to Europe for five years in the 1970s. “I was enough of a smart ass to ruffle some feathers,” he admits. “I’ve been a big critic of the film business, the people who run it, the ethics and enemies may have shot me down. But I knew if I complained too much it would hurt my work and my life. So I laid back and took things as they came.”
Colleagues agree this particular honor, coming on top of an extensive list of other awards, is long overdue. “It sounds like a cliché but I think he is incredibly deserving of it,” says Tony Adams, who produced many of the Pink Panther films with Edwards. “Because of his great success in last 15-20 years, people overlook the full perspective or even the seriousness of many of his comedies. He’s made trademarks in every era that have been that really set trends for the eras that follow.”
“His movies will go on forever and make us laugh and feel good. I’ve never spent an evening around Blake and not had some of the best times of my life,” says Burt Reynolds, who starred with Julie Andrews and Kim Basinger in 1983’s “The Man Who Loved Women.” “His friendship, camaraderie, and his sense of humor is thrilling. You never get the feeling he doesn’t want to listen to you. He has a childlike curiosity about people. He tells a story. His eyes light up. You think he’s telling it for the first time.”
Story is what it all comes down to for Edwards. He considers himself first and foremost a writer. “I started writing and certain things happened that led me into a writing career. Fortunately it was a good career. Things happened nicely,” he says, reflecting on his early days in radio, television and film, and when he began acting after a stint in the Coast Guard during World War II.
He came into the world as a third generation member of a showbiz family. Grandfather J. Gordon Edwards was a prominent silent era director who helmed 24 of Theda Bara’s films, including 1917’s “Cleopatra.” His father, Jack McEdward, was a top production manager and his mother, Lillian, was active in motion picture charities and Hollywood social activities.
Early in his career, after he decided he didn’t want to be an actor, Edwards created the popular radio series “Richard Diamond: Private Detective.” “I went from one job to another and was able to be more choosy,” he says. “I was good and facile, and it eventually led back into film.” He soon teamed with director Richard Quine, for whom he wrote seven films. “It was sort of like Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond on the cheap side.” Edwards considers 1956’s “Mister Cory,” starring Tony Curtis, his first film of any consequence.
Several years later he moved to the small screen, creating the highly stylized, film noirish series “Peter Gunn,” which ran from 1958-1961 on NBC and then ABC and formed the basis for a later film and a TV movie. “It was just a very original TV show that created a whole style of its own in terms of its jazz score. I just had a lovely time and enjoyed myself every minute of the day.” It was with “Gunn” and then the gambling-themed series “Mr. Lucky,” that Edwards forged his legendary collaboration with Henry Mancini.
“Blake launched Henry Mancini’s career,” says Adams. ”They had a string of successes that is pretty staggering when you look at Henry’s Oscar nominations and wins–such a disproportionate amount are with Blake. Their conversations were so short it would scare most people. Blake trusted someone he respected. That’s a big hallmark of his success. He didn’t tell Henry how to write a score. They had a general conversation, and Henry went and did it.”
Mancini won two Oscars for 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” and its star Audrey Hepburn received a nomination for best actress. “I was lucky to direct that film,” Edwards says. “Audrey Hepburn was beautiful and gracious and lovely and I adored her and had one of the best female star relationships I’ve ever had.”
He feels similarly about his stars in “Days of Wine and Roses” (1963), Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon. “I’ve been very lucky where my women are concerned,” remarks Edwards. “I was once asked if I had a choice of working with only one actor, and I said it would be Jack Lemmon. I have since modified that to include John Ritter.”
In 1964, Edwards introduced the bumbling Inspector Clouseau to the world in “The Pink Panther,” and established himself as a modern day master of slapstick and sight gags. It spawned a series of successful films that made Peter Sellers an international star. “It was the best and worst of times,” Edwards recalls. “He was certifiably crazy, but there were times he just a delight.”
He remembers an incident where they had a big disagreement on the set and Sellers called him at midnight saying: “It’s Peter. Don’t worry about that scene, I just spoke with God and he told me how it should be done.” The next day, Sellers came up to him after the scene with a big smile. With the trademark Edwards humor, the director said: “Do me a favor, Peter, next time you talk to God, tell her to stay out of show business.”
“He is devastatingly funny, but like all writers, there’s a dark side to him as well,” Andrews notes. “In his earliest years, whatever was troubling or difficult he manage to overcome and transcend by using his humor. Although at times things can look bleak, the humor always mercifully returns. He’s often said it saved him.”
After the fun, carefree spirit and major success of his comedies, Edwards flopped with the first film he did with Andrews, “Darling Lili (1969), a World War I musical. Still, she says making the film was a delight, with marvelous locations in Paris, Brussels and Ireland during a glorious summer.
The couple first met in a milieu that could be straight from a Blake Edwards screenplay—in the median strip of Sunset Blvd. at Roxbury in Beverly Hills. It happened by chance four or five times when each was on their way to a doctor’s appointment before Edwards called Andrews for a meeting on “Darling Lili.” The couple married in 1969, the second time to the altar for each.
“Fortunately I’m married to an enormously bright, strong woman and (when we got married) we made a deal that we’d take it a day at a time,” Edwards says. “We didn’t think it would last.” Being married has sometimes put a strain on their working relationship in seven films and the Broadway version of “Victor/Victoria.” “I love working with him because it’s so easy, but I’m terrified of not cutting the mustard for him,” Andrews admits. “So far, thank god, it doesn’t seem to have happened very often.” She credits her husband with inspiring and encouraging her to write children’s books, of which there are 11 under the authorship of Julie Edwards.
Bo Derek knew of Edwards’ genius for comedy when she read the script of the seminal film “10” (1979). After an extensive search, she was cast during her first meeting with Edwards and Tony Adams in a role which made her an icon of beauty and desirability. “Blake knew what he wanted and talked to me and felt he could get what he wanted out of me. The part was very visual. Those were the days when directors didn’t read people ten times,” says Derek. “Blake treated me so well, I was spoiled forever.”
Edwards is still pondering a sequel to “10.” He’s recently finished a play called “Scapegoat,” and is spending much of his time now working to bring “The Pink Panther” to Broadway.
Andrews has the last word, as only a spouse often can: “He’s hugely charismatic and mercurial and I think the young Blake Edwards was much angrier, much more ready for confrontation. As years have gone by, he’s put a lot of that to bed and his craft has gotten better and better.”
