Milestones

DIED. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 83, film director, writer and producer; in Bedford, New York. Mankiewicz loved words; he filmed words; he realized that talking pictures were just that. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he started off as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune before entering the world of film. He won an Oscar for best director and best screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and won both those awards again for All About Eve (1950). He also directed one of the biggest film flops of all time: Cleopatra (1963, starring Elizabeth Taylor). But his cinematic successes were legion, and legendary: The Philadelphia Story (James Stewart), No Way Out (Sidney Poitier), Guys and Dolls (Marlon Brando), Suddenly Last Summer (Montgomery Clift), Woman of the Year (Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy) and more.