Tiffany's and Pink Panther director Blake Edwards dies

Film director Blake Edwards - best known for Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Pink Panther. - has died in California at the age of 88, it was announced last night.

Edwards, who was married to British actress Julie Andrews, died from complications of pneumonia on Wednesday morning at St John's Health Centre in Santa Monica. His wife and other family members were at his side. He had been in hospital for about two weeks.

He had knee problems, had undergone unsuccessful procedures and was "pretty much confined to a wheelchair for the last year and a half or two," his publicist Gene Schwam said. That conceivably may have contributed to his condition, he added.

Edwards had been working on two Broadway musicals, one based on the Pink Panther movies. The other, Big Rosemary, was to be an original comedy set during Prohibition.

The motion picture academy gave Edwards a lifetime achievement award in 2004 for "his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen".

Mr Schwam said: "His heart was as big as his talent. He was an Academy Award winner in all respects. "

A third-generation film maker, Edwards was praised for coaxing classic performances from Jack Lemmon, Audrey Hepburn, and Andrews, his wife of nearly half a century. He also worked as a screenwriter, producer and actor.