Mitchum, Joan Collins and Michael Winner. Photo courtesy of the Joan Collins Archive.
Michael Winner, the director of films including the Charles Bronson Death Wish films and the original The Mechanic (recently remade with Jason Statham) has died at age 77. The British director had been in ill health for a number of years, according to the Guardian UK.
He made his debut as a writer-director with the 1960 crime thriller Shoot to Kill. He went on to direct The System, starring Oliver Reed, whom he'd work with again on several films, including the critically panned 1978 remake of The Big Sleep, starring ROBERT MITCHUM and Joan Collins. His last film, 1999's Parting Shots, reteamed him with Reed, who died that year.
His biggest success was with the 1974 drama Death Wish, which spawned two sequels.
Winner was reportedly offered an OBE in 2006 but turned it down, saying, "An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King's Cross station." Mitchum and Winner reportedly didn't get along -- Mitchum once punned that Winner was really a "loser" -- but that's the kind of gesture Mitchum would have admired.
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