Hollywood film director Michael Winner, ‘one of the true originals’, dies aged 77

Mr Winner, who made more than 30 films including the blockbuster Death Wish series, had been ill for some time.

He died at home in Kensington, London, where he was being nursed by wife Geraldine following a lengthy battle with liver disease.

Paying tribute to her husband, Mrs Winner, a former dancer who he married two years ago, said in a statement: “Michael was a wonderful man, brilliant, funny and generous.

“A light has gone out in my life.”

In a career spanning more than 50 years, he worked with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum and Faye Dunaway.

He later reinvented himself as a restaurant critic, writing about food in his typically flamboyant style in his Winner’s Dinners column for The Sunday Times.

Winner, whose appearance in adverts for motor insurance coined the catchphrase “Calm down dear, it’s a commercial”, also founded and funded the Police Memorial Trust following the murder of WPc Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.

More than 50 officers have been honoured by the trust at sites across the country.

His initiative led to a National Police Memorial being erected in the Mall in central London.

Steve Lloyd, trust manager and vice-chairman of the Police Roll of Honour Trust, said: “Michael had been ill for some time, but this is still a sad loss. Michael was a keen supporter of police charities and in particular was the founder of the project that led to the National Police Memorial being placed in the Mall in London.

“There is no doubt that Michael’s work will be continued and we at the Trust pass on our sympathies to his family at this sad time. The work he did on behalf of the policing family brought a lot of comfort to those he recognised.”

Winner had an early introduction to showbusiness – by the age of 14 he was writing a column for local newspapers interviewing stars from Louis Armstrong to Laurence Olivier and went on work in Fleet Street after studying at Cambridge University.

He got his break in 1956 when he started making documentaries and short films and went on to make dozens of films including an early role for David Hemmings alongside Diana Dors in the 1963 film West 11.

Other notable films included a remake of The Big Sleep, with Mitchum as private eye Philip Marlowe, and Hannibal Brooks, which starred Oliver Reed as a prisoner-of-war who makes a bid for freedom with an elephant from a German zoo.

But he is probably best known for the 1974 film Death Wish, which starred Charles Bronson as a mild-mannered architect who becomes a violent vigilante after his family is attacked.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who was among the close friends to celebrate Winner’s wedding two years ago, wrote on Twitter: “True originals come rarely in a lifetime. Madeleine (Lloyd Webber’s wife) and I will deeply miss you.”