David Seidler, an Academy Award winner known for writing The King’s Speech, has died.
The Academy Award winner was fly-fishing in New Zealand when he died on Saturday (March 16).
However, no specific cause of death has been shared.
While Seidler is believed to have been 86, as he was born in 1937, his exact birth month is not publicly known.
According to Seidler’s longtime manager Jeff Aghassi, David passed away doing something he loved, fly-fishing in New Zealand, which brought him great peace.
'David was in the place he loved most in the world – New Zealand – doing what gave him the greatest peace which was fly-fishing,' he said.
'If given the chance, it is exactly as he would have scripted it.'
Seidler was best known as the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind 2010’s The King’s Speech.
The story of King George VI overcoming his severe stutter was the focus of the film, which starred Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon, and Timothy Spall.
Cinema fans also loved the development of his unexpected friendship with speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) in the lead up to World War II.
The script for the film was inspired by Seidler’s own experience of overcoming a stutter in childhood.
In 2011, he won an Oscar for original screenplay and the film won best actor for Firth.
Tom Hooper also won best director, and the film was awarded best picture.
Seidler dedicated his Oscar win to 'all the stutterers around the world,' and thanked 'Her Majesty The Queen for not putting me in the Tower for using the F word.'
Meanwhile, Firth joked that his own career had 'peaked' as he picked up his Oscar for the part.
In addition to major wins at the Oscars, the film earned Seidler two Baftas and the Humanitas Prize.
Seidler previously shared his desire to bring the story of King George VI to the screen and had always wanted to write about him.
Fully committed to the cause, he began researching in 1981 and found that the Queen Mother sought out speech therapist Logue and asked for his help, as the King would freeze during public speeches.
'I wrote and asked her permission to tell the story in a film,' Seidler told The Mail in 2010.
'But it was still so raw for her – the whole business of having to relive what her husband and her family went through, with the Abdication and him becoming King.
'It was too much, and still painful, so she wrote and asked that the film not be made until after her death.'
Following the global impact of The King’s Speech, the movie was adapted for the stage, translated into more than half a dozen languages, and performed on four continents.
Seidler’s other projects were Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988) and Tucker: The Man, and His Dream (1988).
When he died, he was working on many projects, such as documentaries, TV series, and feature films.
