David Seidler, renowned for his work on the Oscar-winning movie The King’s Speech, has passed away at the age of 86. The celebrated screenwriter, who himself suffered from a stammer, brought to the big screen the true account of how King George VI overcame his speech impediment. The 2010 film saw Colin Firth in the lead role, for which he won both a best actor Bafta, and an Oscar. Seidler’s work also included stage adaptations of the movie, which opened in the West End in 2012.
David Seidler dedicated his Oscar win in 2011 to “all the stutterers around the world.” He also made reference to the Queen stating that she had not “put him in the Tower for using the F word.” Jeff Aghassi, Seidler’s manager, confirmed the prolific writer’s death, revealing that he was located in New Zealand, fly-fishing – an activity that brought him the most peace.
Seidler’s career spanned various established productions such as the animated kid’s musicals The King And I, Quest For Camelot, and Madeline: Lost in Paris. He wrote the Japanese monster-movie translation dubs before breaking in TV with Adventures of the Seaspray in the 60s. The proficient writer won his first Writers Guild award for the biopic Onassis: The Richest Man In The World in 1988, where he portrayed the Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Seidler said that he wrote what he knew in a 2011 BBC interview. The plot of The King’s Speech follows King George VI overcoming his crippling stutter thanks to his unexpected friendship with speech therapist Lionel Logue. The widely acclaimed movie garnered multiple accolades for Seidler, including two Bafta Awards, and later, in September, a Humanitas Prize. Since the West End stage release of The King’s Speech, the production has been translated into over half-dozen languages, including Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, and performed across four continents
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