Richard Williams, who had won three Oscars, three British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards and over 250 other international awards, has died at the age of 86 at his St. Andrews home in Bristol, UK, local media reported.
His daughter, Natasha Sutton Williams, told the UK-based PA news agency that her father had been suffering from cancer. He was animating and writing until 6 p.m. on Friday, the day he died, she reportedly said.
Williams was born in Toronto and moved to Britain in the 1950s, according to his biography. He gained his fame after the 1988 “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” movie was released. The English animator, along with famous American director Robert Zemeckis, became trailblazers of the live-action integration with cartoon characters.
“I feared if I did this picture it would stop everything […] It would destroy my commercial business for certain. And then I thought this might not be such a bad idea if it was lucrative enough to allow me to concentrate on just movies in the future”, Williams said in 1988, cited by the Southam News media outlet.
Some of his other works are featured in the movies “The Return of the Pink Panther”, “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” and 1967 “Casino Royale”.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
