The Oscar winning director of The English Patient, Anthony Minghella CBE, has passed away at the age of 54.  News reports: Minghella, as one of five children, grew up on the Isle of Wight where his family run a chain of ice cream shops.

A woman at the family home in Ryde said they were too upset to comment, but a worker at one of the shops described the news of his death as really raw.

The sad news, which has been confirmed by Minghella’s agent, Judy Daish and according to the Associated Press, the cause of death has not yet been released.

However, Variety is reporting that Minghella suffered a brain hemorrhage at 5 A.M. today at Charing Cross Hospital in London, where he had undergone a routine operation on his neck.

Minghella won the best director Academy award in 1997, the year in which the film won nine Oscars. He was also nominated for the best adapted screenwriting award in 2000 for The Talented Mr Ripley.  His other films include Cold Mountain and Breaking and Entering.

He directed the acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly presented last season at the Metropolitan Opera, and was also a noted playwright, with works including Whale Music, Two Planks And A Passion, A Little Like Drowning, Made In Bangkok, and Cigarettes and Chocolate.

Film producer David Puttnam said it was a shattering blow.

He was a great guy, a very, very nice man, a brilliant writer, excellent director and someone who contributed more than most to our industry, Puttnam told BBC News 24.

He’s going to be hugely missed.

The film-maker recently completed work on the Botswana-set comedy, The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which he directed after co-writing with Four Weddings and a Funeral scribe Richard Curtis. An adaptation of the Alexander McCall Smith novel, it had been due to premiere on BBC1 on Easter Monday.