British film maker and theatre director Anthony Minghella has died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage aged just 54. He marked out a career of classy, handsome productions both onstage and in the cinema, with his film The English Patient cleaning up at the Oscars for its year. Other films included ghostly romance Truly Madly Deeply, Patricia Highsmith adaptation The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and Breaking and Entering. He also worked in television, writing episodes of The Storyteller and Inspector Morse; his pilot for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was due on British screens over Easter.
