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Roger Michell, Director of Notting Hill, Dead at 65

Roger Michell. Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Roger Michell, the stage and film director perhaps best known for the beloved 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill, has died at the age of 65. Michell’s publicist confirmed to the Guardian that he died on September 22, with no cause of death given. Michell was born in South Africa to a British diplomat and began writing and directing theater at the University of Cambridge, before becoming resident director at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985. Throughout the 1990s, Michell directed numerous plays at the National Theatre, and began his film career in 1995 with the BAFTA-winning BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which got a theatrical release in the United States. From there, Michell went on to direct Richard Curtis’s classic Notting Hill, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. In the 2000s, he directed a variety of projects including the underrated rom-com Morning Glory with Harrison Ford, Rachel McAdams, and Diane Keaton, Hyde Park on Hudson with Bill Murray, and the acclaimed Le Week-End. He is survived by four children.

Roger Michell, Director of Notting Hill, Dead at 65