OSCAR-Winning writer David Seidler has died at 87 while fly-fishing in New Zealand.
The Academy Award winner is best known for screenwriting the film The King’s Speech.
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No cause was given as to the reason behind David’s death.
The Hollywood writer’s long-time manager Jeff Aghassi broke the news on Sunday, telling Deadline, “David was in the place he loved most in the world – New Zealand – doing what gave him the greatest peace which was fly-fishing.
“If given the chance, it is exactly as he would have scripted it.”
David wrote both the stage and screen versions of the beloved film The King’s Speech, which reached box office success.
The movie went on to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Writing at the 2011 Oscars.
CLOSE TO THE HEART
The King’s Speech followed the story of King George VI, played by actor Colin Firth, and his struggles with a severe stutter.
David grew up with a stutter as well, previously opening up about the condition as his reason to write about the British monarch and tell his story.
In addition to the Oscar win, David also received two BAFTAs and the Humanitas Prize.
The King’s Speech was always intended to be both a feature film and a stage play.
While accepting his Academy Award on stage, he dedicated the achievement to “all the stutterers around the world.”
He also thanked “Her Majesty The Queen for not putting me in the Tower for using the F word.”
Colin portrayed George VI in the film and during his own acceptance speech he joked that his career had reached its “peak.”
He continued on to thank “all the people who have been rooting for me back home,” including his wife, “Livia, for putting up with my fleeting delusions of royalty.”
The director of The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper, also won the award for Best Director.
THE QUEEN’S PERMISSION
David began his research for the screenplay back in 1981 when he discovered that the Queen Mother found Logue, an Australian speech and language therapist to help her son, lovingly referred to as Bertie.
Logue was working in London in the 1920s, so the Queen Mother hired him to assist George VI with his public speaking.
The King, due to his stuttering issue, froze every time he was asked to make a speech.
In 2010, David spoke to the DailyMail about his process of requesting permission from the monarchy to make the movie.
“I wrote and asked her permission to tell the story in a film. But it was still so raw for her – the whole business of having to relive what her husband and her family went through, with the Abdication and him becoming King,” he explained.
“It was too much and still painful, so she wrote and asked that the film not be made until after her death.”
Though the Queen Mother died in 2002, he didn’t begin the work until three years later.
DAVID’S CHILDHOOD
David was born into an upper-class family in London, England, in July 1937.
When his family’s apartment was bombed during WWII, they were forced to relocate to Lingfield in Surrey and finally to America.
The ship they sailed on through the Atlantic Ocean was one of three, and German U-boats sank a sister ship during the journey.
During this time, David first developed his stammer, before the age of 3.
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