RIP: Tom Mankiewicz (1942–2010)

I received an email tonight that veteran screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, whose interview I featured here on May 29, has died. Here is one article regarding his death. Then another from of all things an online site focusing on horse racing:

Screenwriter and longtime horse owner Tom Mankiewicz, son of legendary film producer Joseph Mankiewicz, died Saturday after losing a battle with cancer. He was 68.

Trainer John Sadler was Mankiewicz’ trainer for several years and said this morning, “I was devastated to hear the news this morning. It’s a big loss. He was a terrific person, and he loved racing and coming to the races. He was not only a great owner but he was a great fan, too. He was more of a regular at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park because he lived in that area.”

His screenwriting credits include Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Ladyhawke (1985), and Dragnet (1987).

Here is an excerpt from the interview with Mankiewicz:

There’s something idiosyncratic about Bond and that’s the humor or an outrageous scene where people laugh. In The Spy Who Loved Me, he gets into this Lotus with Barbara Bach and they go into the ocean and they’re under the ocean — the car’s under the ocean. That’s fine, that’s Bond. But what makes that — what I’m proudest of — is the car turns, but he puts his blinker on under water. That’s what Bond is to me — it’s putting the blinker on and the audience roars. That’s what made it different than others, y’know.

Godspeed, Tom Mankiewicz.

UPDATE: DSC posted this link to an interview he conducted with Mankiewicz in 2007. Yulia posted this link for his memorial website.

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