Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90. [...]The author of almost 100 books, Mr. Clarke was an ardent promoter of the idea that humanity’s destiny lay beyond the confines of Earth. It was a vision served most vividly by “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the classic 1968 science-fiction film he created with the director Stanley Kubrick and the novel of the same title that he wrote as part of the project.
His work was also prophetic: his detailed forecast of telecommunications satellites in 1945 came more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight.
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Anthony Minghella, the British film director who won an Oscar for The English Patient, has died from a haemorrhage after undergoing routine surgery last week. He was 54.The operation to remove a growth in his neck took place at Charing Cross Hospital, central London, on Thursday and it was believed he was recovering well.
Minghella, one of five children who grew up above the family’s ice cream shop on the Isle of Wight, was a leading figure in British film and theatre.
As well as directing such hits as the The Talented Mr Ripley and Cold Mountain, he was until recently the chairman of the British Film Institute.
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