David Seidler, who won an Oscar for writing The King’s Speech, passed away at the age of 86.
The stammering screenwriter from London took the real-life account of King George VI’s speech impairment to the big screen.
Colin Firth, who played the king in the 2010 movie, received an Oscar and a Bafta for best actor.
The 2012 West End premiere of the film’s stage version was also spearheaded by Seidler.
The LA Times claims that one of Seidler’s first entertainment jobs was translating Japanese monster movies, and he made his TV debut with Adventures of the Seaspray in the 1960s.
Throughout his career, Seidler penned more works, such as the animated kids’ musicals Madeline: Lost in Paris, Quest for Camelot, and The King and I.
For the 1988 biography Onassis: The Richest Man in the World, which starred Raul Julia as the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, Seidler was awarded his first Writers Guild award.
In 1988, he co-wrote the comic drama Tucker: The Man and His Dream, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
But his most famous work was the King’s Speech. The tale centers on King George VI’s journey to overcome his terrible stammer and his surprising friendship with Lionel Logue, a speech therapist, prior to World War II.
Seidler won two Bafta prizes in February 2011 and, for his efforts, was awarded a Humanitas Prize in September.
Seidler stated, “I was writing about myself,” to the BBC in a 2011 interview.
Italian, Japanese, and Spanish are among the “more than a half-dozen languages” that have been translated for the West End production of The King’s Speech, according to Mr. Aghassi.
It has been shown on four continents; the Covid-19 epidemic alone prevented it from reaching Broadway in 2020.
According to Mr. Aghassi, “David concentrated on the lessons of life, love, loss, and rebirth.”
He was surviived by his adult children, Marc and Maya.
