David Seidler, the screenwriter of the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech, died on Saturday while fly-fishing in New Zealand. Seidler was 86 years old.
“David was in the place he loved most in the world — New Zealand — doing what gave him the greatest peace which was fly-fishing,” his manager Jeff Aghassi said in a statement. “If given the chance, it is exactly as he would have scripted it.”
David Seidler won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2010 for The King’s Speech a film directed by Tom Hooper and featuring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. The historical drama also clinched awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.
David Seidler Wrote ‘The King’s Speech’ While Battling Throat Cancer
Himself having a stammer, Seidler was always interested in the story behind King George VI overcoming his speech impediment. After extensive research, David Seidler started writing The King’s Speech in 2005 following a battle with throat cancer.
Soon after he completed the first screenplay draft. However, Seidler told Film Critic in 2011 that his ex-wife and writing partner suggested a rewrite as a stage play exercise. She thought the stage’s constraints would assist him in focusing on crucial relationships in the story without being distracted by cinematic techniques.
The King’s Speech stage play has been translated into over half a dozen languages and performed across four continents. Following its staging at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End in 2012, the play was set to go to Broadway. However, the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted these plans in 2020.
During his career, Seidler contributed to a variety of projects, such as the animated children’s musicals The King and I, Quest for Camelot, and Madeline: Lost in Paris.
Seidler received his inaugural Writers’ Guild award for the 1988 biopic Onassis: The Richest Man in the World. The film starred Raul Julia as the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. He also collaborated on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1988 film Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
He wrote several TV movies, including Whose Child Is This? The War for Baby Jessica, Come on, Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story, and By Dawn’s Early Light. Seidler also penned episodes for TV series like Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and The Wonderful World of Disney.
Seidler is survived by his grown children, Marc and Maya.