The passing of Anthony Minghella leaves a void in the world of filmmaking that few people are equipped to fill. Minghella was of course an award winning director capable of high-gloss Oscar bait efforts like The English Patient and Cold Mountain, and he could infuse genre pieces such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Truly, Madly, Deeply with doses of penetrating psychological insight. Alongside producing partner Sydney Pollack, a fellow multi-faceted hyphenate, the man helped bring a number of interesting projects to the big screen including the recent Best Picture nominee Michael Clayton and the underrated Catch a Fire.

His career in features lasted less than two decades, and while he never became the household name that some of his contemporaries were, Minghella showed a sense of ambition in his work, and a keen eye for actors. He directed six Academy Award-nominated performances, which is all the more impressive when you realize he only directed six feature films. He gave Jude Law what still stands as his best part in Ripley, a film so full of great performances that one can return to it time and again and appreciate some subtly that had slipped by before. Iris, and The Quiet American, two of the films he produced, each feature Oscar-nominated performances, with Jim Broadbent taking home the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his work in Iris. He enjoyed the challenge of adapting great novels for the screen, and his facility with performers – he said in one interview, rightly, that Cate Blanchett “can do anything” – allowed him to never lose the human stories at the center of his most epic pieces.

Minghella will be remembered as a man who created the kind of ambitious fare Hollywood loves to reward, but he was far from a high-class hack fishing for awards and adulation. What will be missed is his unique combination of taste and showmanship, as there are few people in the business that can match his unusual combination of talents.