Blake Edwards's Real Name: William Blake Crump

Quick answer: Blake Edwards's real name was William Blake Crump. He was born on July 26, 1922, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and worked under Blake Edwards as a film director, screenwriter, and producer.

[IMAGE: credited photo of Blake Edwards on set or at an awards event, with credit]

Edwards's real name and family background

Britannica and the Library of Congress list his original name as William Blake Crump, with variants including McEdwards after his mother's remarriage (Britannica Kids; LOC). His parents divorced when he was about three; his mother married motion-picture production manager Jack McEdward, son of silent-film director J. Gordon Edwards. The family moved to Los Angeles, where he attended Beverly Hills High School and worked as a script courier at Twentieth Century-Fox (Britannica Kids; WGA Laurel Award bio).

After U.S. Coast Guard service he acted in bit parts (A Guy Named Joe, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Best Years of Our Lives) before turning to writing and directing.

Career highlights

Edwards created the TV series Peter Gunn (1958–61) and Mr. Lucky, beginning a long collaboration with composer Henry Mancini. Film landmarks include:

• Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) with Audrey Hepburn
• Days of Wine and Roses (1962) with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick
• The Pink Panther (1963) and sequels starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau
• 10 (1979) with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek
• Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews (Britannica Kids)

[IMAGE: credited still from The Pink Panther or Breakfast at Tiffany's (press still with credit)]

He married Julie Andrews in 1969. In 2004 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. He died December 15, 2010, in Santa Monica, California (Britannica Kids).

Amazon note (tag realname1-20): Pink Panther collections, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Victor/Victoria are natural slots.