I'll never forget watching Truly Madly Deeply as a kid, a film I hold responsible for a crush on cellists (Altman's Shortcuts also playing a part). Anthony Minghella did much more besides making deeply heartfelt and tender films - from chairing the BFI to Grange Hill, Inspector Morse and promoting the family ice cream business on the Isle of Wight.

All thoughts to Hannah, Max, Carolyn and the rest of his family right now.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name, has also died at his home in Sri Lanka.

Brilliant actor Paul Scoffield, star of A Man for All Seasons, the Crucible and Quiz Show, has also passed away.

David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was an award-winning English actor of stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive voice and delivery, Scofield won both an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his role as Sir Thomas More in the 1966 filmA Man for All Seasons. He had previously originated the role in the stage version both in theWest End and on Broadway, winning a Tony Award. 

Legendary producer Verity Lambert died yesterday - one day before the 44^th anniversary of the airing of her first production on the 23^rd November 1963 - the BBC's iconic Doctor Who. Lambert cast William Hartnell in the title role and established the show's format which has endured to this very day - a centuries old alien wandering time and space with his companions in his Police Box-shaped TARDIS, having adventures in the past, present and future.

Legendary film-maker Ingmar Bergman has died at the age of 89.

Cissi Elwin, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute, comments on Ingmar Bergman’s passing.

"Probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera" Woody Allen

"This is a day of sorrow in the world of film. One of the world’s most prominent filmmakers is gone.

Film in Sweden without Ingmar Bergman is almost unthinkable. For more than half a century he has led us into his own cinematic landscape – and forced us to confront ourselves. He has relentlessly asked the most important questions about being human and pointed out our vulnerability, our smallness, but also our greatness. The films are some kind of comfort. Ingmar Bergman has left us, but his films will live on – long, long after he himself is gone.

"No one working with film in Sweden doesn’t have a relationship to Ingmar Bergman. But he has also influenced filmmakers all over the world. The huge international fascination with his films has paved the way for fellow Swedish filmmakers. To this day, every day, his films are shown somewhere in the world.

"Filmmaking is a chance to live many lifetimes."
Robert Altman

The man behind such diverse and acclaimed films as Shortcuts, M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs Miller, Nashville and Gosford Park - Robert Altman - has died in a Los Angeles hospital aged 81.

“Maybe there's a chance to get back to ... grown-up films. Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.”
Robert Altman

Award-winning actor and comedian Red Buttons has died at the age of 87 He was one of the first funny men to show that comedians could also be Oscar-winning actors. He won the Supporting Actor award for Sayonara (1957), in which he co-starred with Marlon Brando as a U.S. airman who embarks on a tragic romance with a Japanese woman. He was also a quick-witted master of his craft as a comedian. A longtime fixture at Friar's Club, few there could touch him.

Buttons started out in showbiz 70 years ago as a teenage singing bellhop named  Aaron Chwatt, a name that he soon swapped for one suggested by his bellhop uniform and red hair. He played a memorable role in the original Poseidon Adventure and just last year, he earned an Emmy nomination for a guest role as a patient on ER.

Actor and documentary-maker Kenneth Griffith has died at the age of 84.

He was born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire and had been  a familiar face on TV and cinema screens since the 1940s, including the 1960's cult TV hit, The Prisoner.

Griffith, who died at his London home, also made often controversial films on such subjects as the Boer War - on which he was an expert - and Ireland.