Film director and sometime writer Ken Annakin died of natural causes on 22 April 2009 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. Born 10 August 1914 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966 (for writing Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines) and won a Razzie in 1983 (for directing The Pirate Movie).
His daughter, Deborah Peters, said he was an only child who left his parents as a teenager and never told her his parents’ names. He joined the Royal Air Force during World War II, but was injured in during the Blitz, and after that, became a camera operator making training films during the war. After the war, he went straight into filmmaking professionally, with his first directing credits coming in 1946.
Annakin was one of the four directors of the World War II epic The Longest Day (1962), and then the sole director of Henry Fonda’s Battle of the Bulge (1965). He also worked on comedies and several live-action films for Disney. His other genre credits include The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988), The Fifth Musketeer (1979), and Miranda (1948).
He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2002 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, and the same year, was named a Disney Legend.
Following Annakin’s death, George Lucas released a statement via his publicist that, contrary to previous reports, he did not name Anakin Skywalker after Annakin.
He is survived by his wife Pauline (whom he married in 1959), his daughter, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.