Film director Forbes dies aged 86

Reuters/LondonFilm director Bryan Forbes, whose work included the 1970s psychological thriller The Stepford Wives and International Velvet, has died aged 86, friends said. “The great British film director, Bryan Forbes, has died - a titan of cinema and an awesome force of screen, theatre, entertainment,” British journalist and family friend Matthew d’Ancona wrote on Twitter.Forbes was married to actress Nanette Newman and had two daughters, TV presenter Emma Forbes and journalist Sarah Standing.“Very sad to hear that Bryan Forbes died. He was an iconic figure of the British film industry,” actress Joan Collins said on Twitter. “My heart goes out to Nanette, Sarah and Emma.” Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke in east London in 1926 and made his screen acting debut in 1948. He landed supporting parts in several notable British films including An Inspector Calls and The Colditz Story.He set up Beaver Films in 1959 with director Richard Attenborough. Forbes wrote their first film, The Angry Silence, which featured Attenborough in the lead role and was nominated for an Oscar in 1961 and won a Bafta. His directing career began in 1961 with Whistle Down the Wind, but his best known films internationally were The Stepford Wives, based on the novel by Ira Levin in 1975, and the horse-racing sequel International Velvet in 1978.Forbes directed many films in the 1960s and early 1970s, including The Raging Moon, which starred his wife Newman, who he married in 1955. He was also a prolific screenwriter, enjoying success with the 1960 film The League of Gentlemen and more recently with Chaplin in 1992.Apart from directing, acting and screenwriting, Forbes was also a novelist who published several books including The Soldier’s Story which was published last year.