The Late Michael Winner

[Guest]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21123532

Very sad to hear this.

I met MW once or twice in the course of duty: he was always friendly, courteous, interested in other people rather than impressing you with who he was, and with a wicked sense of humour. He also replied to all his letters personally and was extremely generous to charitable causes, one of which he set up himself.

The world is the poorer for his passing.

[amateur51]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21123532

Very sad to hear this.

I met MW once or twice in the course of duty: he was always friendly, courteous, interested in other people rather than impressing you with who he was, and with a wicked sense of humour. He also replied to all his letters personally and was extremely generous to charitable causes, one of which he set up himself.

The world is the poorer for his passing.

A true British eccentric with all that that can mean.

I'm both sad and rather glad that he has died because he was a bon vivant and he had been terribly ill for a number of years because of an infection he picked up from a dodgy oyster, during which time he almost had to have a leg amputated.

Soldiering on, he continued to eat dangerously and later contracted E.coli after eating raw meat in a steak tartare

This clip will be my favourite memory of him ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS5S2Dio2_Y

Calm down, dear!

[Nick Armstrong]

Are you serious - he was brought so low by a bloody oyster?

[amateur51]

Are you serious - he was brought so low by a bloody oyster?

It's all in Mandy's link, Caliban - deeply worrying

[Thropplenoggin]

Are you serious - he was brought so low by a bloody oyster?

Yes. But he was eating them at the 5-star Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados. The Caribbean is not somewhere I'd normally associate eating oysters with. But then I'm not minted and used to getting what I want when I want it...

Ams: I wouldn't call it deeply worrying. I've shucked and eaten douzaines of oysters since moving to France...never had a dodgy one yet. The French have a simple system to see if their oyster is good - sniff it before eating it. Any hint of maloderousness and they abandon ship or, rather, oyster. Interestingly, if an Englishman applies said philosophy to French cheese, he may end up eating rather few of them.

It's a wonder that Mandryka hasn't blamed Harold Wilson for his death. (for the hat-trick!)

[Mandryka]

Although MW was very rich (unlike a lot of very rich people, he didn't bother pretending that he wasn't), he always saw himself as an outsider. 'I vote Tory for one simple reason', he once said. 'Because I've got a lot of money!'

[Richard Tarleton]

He famously (and often) said "I book tables, not restaurants". If I know the place I'm going to eat in, I channel my inner Winner and request my favourite table when booking, and if I don't know the place I object if they try to seat me at an obviously unsatisfactory one. As he, or somebody, said, restaurants like to fill up their less desirable tables first in case Stephen Fry drops in on the off chance.

Entertaining and insufferable in equal measure, as Mandy says the world will be poorer for his passing.

The briefest research into tropical oysters (which I assume is what he ate in Sandy Bay) via Google suggests that they are probably best avoided. You should only eat filter feeders when you are confident about what else is, or isn't, in the water.

[Serial_Apologist]

He never could accept the possibility that on-screen violence can influence behaviour, though...

[Mandryka]

He never could accept the possibility that on-screen violence can influence behaviour, though...

I'm saddened by the passing of the man, but I never liked any of his films. He was never taken seriously as a filmmaker and, I have to say, with good reason.

[kernelbogey]

Are you serious - he was brought so low by a bloody oyster?

The Guardian's obituary states:

'His last years had been a tribulation involving a near-fatal bacterial infection from oysters, MRSA and liver disease.'

[Stillhomewardbound]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21123532
He also replied to all his letters personally

Thanks for a reminder, Mandryka, which concerns my brother who had just come out of RADA. The form then was that you sent out a letter with your particulars and a headshot to all the relevant producers, casting directors and notable directors. A budding actor would have been pleased to get any acknowledgement, never mind a personal, handwritten letter as Winner sent.

Well, a budding actor would have been pleased to get any acknowledgement, never mind a personal, handwritten letter as Winner sent.

It was brief but gave the honest impression of a humble courtesy that spoke ... 'glad to know you're out there and and available, thank you for letting me know' and such. A valuable fillip to a young, fledgling talent.

Thirty years on I hadn't remembered the gesture until now, but I can still still his flourish of a signature in my mind's eye.

Oh, yes, I don't doubt that there was an aspect of him that was impossible and loathsome even, his closest friends conceding as much, but in such an imperfect world what right have we to demand perfection?

And perfection he did attain in his singular advocacy for the police memorials scheme. An initiative he got underway with his own, individual, contribution of £500, 000 and the beginning of a project that would culminate in the erection of the National Police Memorial

Ironically, this is the achievement for which he will least be recalled down the years, and yet, it will be his most lasting mark. Not because such memorials wil bear his name, or anything like that, but simply as an individual who believed it was unacceptable that where police officers fell in the line of duty, their sacrifice should not be honoured, in common with their comrades in the services, most notably amongst the ranks of the former RUC.

For this, MW, we must salute you.

SMcK

ps. Oh, and he was no fool as a filmmaker.