Towering Inferno director John Guillermin dies aged 89

British director John Guillermin, recognized for guiding the 1976 model of “King Kong” and “The Towering Inferno” is lifeless.

Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Guillermin’s long list of credits including The Blue Max and Shaft in Africa. Please know that my dear husband, John Guillermin, director, died suddenly on Sunday September 28, just a few weeks short of his 90th birthday.

Guillermin was born in London in 1925, and got his education at the University of Cambridge.

The movie, still regarded as a classic of the genre, about a fire that breaks out on the 135th floor of a shoddily-built skyscraper starred McQueen and Newman – two of the biggest film stars of the day. Initially studying in France and learning the art of documentaries, he moved to Los Angeles in 1950 to learn Hollywood’s film ways, though he’d already gotten his start in movies with the likes of Torment/Paper Gallows, Melody In The Dark and High Jinks In Society. He received an apologetic phone call the next day. Those people who admired his work, but may not have known him or me personally, are welcome to come to our home in Topanga to bid farewell to a talented director who produced a large body of films stretching over 40 years.

For the version of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile of 1978, Guillermin gathered a cast of top ability that was playing.

Peter Ustinov played the legendary sleuth Hercule Poirot alongside David Niven, George Kennedy and Angela Lansbury.

His last film was 1986 sequel, King Kong Lives. He won the Evening Standard British Film Award in 1980 for “Death on the Nile“.