Roger Michell death: Notting Hill director dies aged 65

Michell was also the filmmaker behind ‘Venus’, ‘My Cousin Rachel’, and ‘Persuasion’

Roger Michell attends the photocall of the movie ‘The Duke’ at the 77th Venice Film Festival on 4 September 2020 in Venice, Italy (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)

Roger Michell, the director of films such as Notting Hill, Venus, and My Cousin Rachel, has died at the age of 65.

His publicist told the PA news agency in a statement: “It is with great sadness that the family of Roger Michell, director, writer and father of Harry, Rosie, Maggie and Sparrow, announce his death at the age of 65 on 22 September.”

The son of a British diplomat, Michell was born in South Africa and lived in Beirut, Damascus and Prague as a child. He was an acclaimed theatre director, and was resident director at the Royal Shakespeare Company for six years.

His theatre credits include Nina Raine’s Consent, Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, and Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. Many of his productions played at the National Theatre. His production of Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall, starring Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor, won numerous awards and transferred to the West End.

Michell was also the filmmaker behind Enduring Love, Morning Glory, the 1995 adaptation of Persuasion, and Blackbird. He won a Bafta for Persuasion, as well as for his two-part TV drama The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies, written by Peter Morgan.

Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in ‘Notting Hill' (Moviestore/Shutterstock)

His film The Duke, starring Dame Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, and Matthew Goode, is scheduled for release on 25 February 2022 in the UK.

Notting Hill, a 1999 romantic comedy directed by Michell and written by Richard Curtis, stars Julia Roberts as a movie star and Hugh Grant as her bookstore-owning love interest. It was nominated for three Golden Globes and three BAFTAs (winning the publicly voted Orange Film of the Year award) and has become a cult classic.

PA contributed to this report