Film director, food writer and bon viveur Michael Winner died today aged 77 after a long illness. Winner was a food critic for the Sunday Times as well as the director of more than 30 films including his famous Death Wish series starring Charles Bronson. He had been unwell for some time, revealing last summer that specialists had given him 18 months to live due to heart and liver problems – and that he had considered going to a Dignitas assisted-dying clinic in Switzerland. His wife Geraldine confirmed his death at their home in Kensington today. Mrs Winner paid tribute to him in a statement: “Michael was a wonderful man, brilliant, funny and generous. A light has gone out in my life.” The pair married nearly two years ago at the Chelsea Register Office after a courtship spanning 50 years.
