David Seidler dead at 86: The Oscar-winning screenwriter of The King’s Speech has passed away

David Seidler, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The King’s Speech, has died at 86. He passed away while he was on a fly-fishing expedition in New Zealand. His manager Jeff Aghassi said in a statement that “David was in the place he loved most in the world- New Zealand- doing what gave him the greatest peace which was fly-fishing.” He went on to say that “If given the chance, it is exactly as he would have scripted it.”

As well as writing episodes for series such as Days of Our Lives, and General Hospital, David Seidler wrote TV films such as Onassis: The Richest Man in the World, Tucker: The Man and His Dream and The War for Baby Jessica. 

However, David Seidler is best known for writing The King’s Speech, which starred Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush, and was directed by Tom Hooper. David Seidler won the Academy Award for best original screenplay for the 2010 movie and it also won best director, best picture and best actor. 

Deadline reported that “The project, which he also intended as a stage play, was a labour of love for the screenwriter, who had a profound stutter as a child. Seidler also received two BAFTAs and the Humanitas Prize for the work.”

The King’s Speech was about how King George V1 who was played by the actor Colin Firth overcame a severe stutter and his friendship with speech therapist Lionel Logue (played by Geoffrey Rush) as World War 2 approached. 

In 2011, The New York Times reported that “As a boy Mr. Seidler kept his chin up. He recalled attending a pantomime show in Britain after the war, at which an actor called him from the audience to the stage and asked for his name. “I started stuttering ‘David,’ and the eyes of the actor and audience members started to widen,” Mr. Seidler recalled. “The actor tried sending me back to my seat, but I wasn’t going to have it.”

David Seidle is survived by his adult children, Marc and Maya.