Minghella dead

It's truly sad news for the film world that Anthony Minghella has died. He's best known here for directing such Oscar winners as "The English Patient," "Cold Mountain," and "The Talented Mr Ripley."

He was just 54. He died of a hemorrhage early this morning as he was recovering from an operation last week to remove a growth from his neck.

Minghella first came to prominance as a director for "Truly, Madly, Deeply" a BBC drama starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman about a woman who is followed by the spirit of her dead husband. It became an instant cult classic in part because of its lack of schmaltz. It also established Stevenson and Rickman as true stars. A decade and a half after it first aired it's still much favored a video rental.

Minghella had just finished another film for the BBC at the time of his death, a long awaited adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency."