Satyajit Ray: Filmmaker Ray, 70, Oscar winner, dies:- Friday, April 24, 1992
Satyajit Ray, the Oscar-winning filmmaker whose tales of life in dirt-poor Bengal, India, drew worldwide acclaim, died Thursday at the age of 70.
He died in Calcutta's Belle Vue hospital, where he was admitted Jan. 29 suffering from acute breathing problems compounded by a longtime heart ailment, a hospital statement said.
Hundreds of film and stage artists and others gathered outside the hospital to mourn. The government of West Bengal state said government offices and schools would be closed Friday.
A Renaissance man of filmmaking, Ray made more than 30 movies during a career that spanned 37 years. Critics hailed him as a genius, and India embraced him as a national hero.
Yet Ray drew small audiences in India a nation that ranks among the most movie-mad. Prepackaged, Bombay-made song-and-dance comedies or dramas draw the biggest audiences in India.
"I have survived because of my foreign market. Without that I wouldn't have survived at all," Ray said after the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded him its lifetime achievement award last month. "I would have stopped making films and gone back to my old profession, advertising."
Ray accepted the statue in his hospital room in a ceremony later shown during the Oscar awards.
"When the history of movies is written, he will be unquestionably amongst the giants," British director Sir Richard Attenborough said Thursday in a statement.
Ray's productions were virtually one-man shows. He wrote the screenplay, cast the parts, designed the costumes, scored the music, directed, mixed and edited the final package.
Most of his films were set in Bengal, a dirt-poor but culturally rich region bordering Bangladesh, and all but one was in Bengali.
But they were not Indian movies. Nor, Ray often said with distaste, are they "art films." Their message was universal and their essence was "the human element."
They "deal with people, their problems and their relationships. Laughter, tears they're the same all over the world," Ray said in an interview this year.
He was a prolific author, not only of screenplays but also novels and children's stories. Detective stories, science fiction and fairy tales all were vehicles for his imagination.
He is survived by wife, Bijoya, and son, Sondeep, a film director. He was to be cremated Friday.
Satyajit Ray, the Oscar-winning filmmaker whose tales of life in dirt-poor Bengal, India, drew worldwide acclaim, died Thursday at the age of 70.
He died in Calcutta's Belle Vue hospital, where he was admitted Jan. 29 suffering from acute breathing problems compounded by a longtime heart ailment, a hospital statement said.
Hundreds of film and stage artists and others gathered outside the hospital to mourn. The government of West Bengal state said government offices and schools would be closed Friday.
A Renaissance man of filmmaking, Ray made more than 30 movies during a career that spanned 37 years. Critics hailed him as a genius, and India embraced him as a national hero.
Yet Ray drew small audiences in India a nation that ranks among the most movie-mad. Prepackaged, Bombay-made song-and-dance comedies or dramas draw the biggest audiences in India.
"I have survived because of my foreign market. Without that I wouldn't have survived at all," Ray said after the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded him its lifetime achievement award last month. "I would have stopped making films and gone back to my old profession, advertising."
Ray accepted the statue in his hospital room in a ceremony later shown during the Oscar awards.
"When the history of movies is written, he will be unquestionably amongst the giants," British director Sir Richard Attenborough said Thursday in a statement.
Ray's productions were virtually one-man shows. He wrote the screenplay, cast the parts, designed the costumes, scored the music, directed, mixed and edited the final package.
Most of his films were set in Bengal, a dirt-poor but culturally rich region bordering Bangladesh, and all but one was in Bengali.
But they were not Indian movies. Nor, Ray often said with distaste, are they "art films." Their message was universal and their essence was "the human element."
They "deal with people, their problems and their relationships. Laughter, tears they're the same all over the world," Ray said in an interview this year.
He was a prolific author, not only of screenplays but also novels and children's stories. Detective stories, science fiction and fairy tales all were vehicles for his imagination.
He is survived by wife, Bijoya, and son, Sondeep, a film director. He was to be cremated Friday.
Satyajit Ray: Filmmaker Ray, 70, Oscar winner, dies:- Friday, April 24, 1992
Satyajit Ray, the Oscar-winning filmmaker whose tales of life in dirt-poor Bengal, India, drew worldwide acclaim, died Thursday at the age of 70.
He died in Calcutta's Belle Vue hospital, where he was admitted Jan. 29 suffering from acute breathing problems compounded by a longtime heart ailment, a hospital statement said.
Hundreds of film and stage artists and others gathered outside the hospital to mourn. The government of West Bengal state said government offices and schools would be closed Friday.
A Renaissance man of filmmaking, Ray made more than 30 movies during a career that spanned 37 years. Critics hailed him as a genius, and India embraced him as a national hero.
Yet Ray drew small audiences in India a nation that ranks among the most movie-mad. Prepackaged, Bombay-made song-and-dance comedies or dramas draw the biggest audiences in India.
"I have survived because of my foreign market. Without that I wouldn't have survived at all," Ray said after the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded him its lifetime achievement award last month. "I would have stopped making films and gone back to my old profession, advertising."
Ray accepted the statue in his hospital room in a ceremony later shown during the Oscar awards.
"When the history of movies is written, he will be unquestionably amongst the giants," British director Sir Richard Attenborough said Thursday in a statement.
Ray's productions were virtually one-man shows. He wrote the screenplay, cast the parts, designed the costumes, scored the music, directed, mixed and edited the final package.
Most of his films were set in Bengal, a dirt-poor but culturally rich region bordering Bangladesh, and all but one was in Bengali.
But they were not Indian movies. Nor, Ray often said with distaste, are they "art films." Their message was universal and their essence was "the human element."
They "deal with people, their problems and their relationships. Laughter, tears they're the same all over the world," Ray said in an interview this year.
He was a prolific author, not only of screenplays but also novels and children's stories. Detective stories, science fiction and fairy tales all were vehicles for his imagination.
He is survived by wife, Bijoya, and son, Sondeep, a film director. He was to be cremated Friday.
Satyajit Ray, the Oscar-winning filmmaker whose tales of life in dirt-poor Bengal, India, drew worldwide acclaim, died Thursday at the age of 70.
He died in Calcutta's Belle Vue hospital, where he was admitted Jan. 29 suffering from acute breathing problems compounded by a longtime heart ailment, a hospital statement said.
Hundreds of film and stage artists and others gathered outside the hospital to mourn. The government of West Bengal state said government offices and schools would be closed Friday.
A Renaissance man of filmmaking, Ray made more than 30 movies during a career that spanned 37 years. Critics hailed him as a genius, and India embraced him as a national hero.
Yet Ray drew small audiences in India a nation that ranks among the most movie-mad. Prepackaged, Bombay-made song-and-dance comedies or dramas draw the biggest audiences in India.
"I have survived because of my foreign market. Without that I wouldn't have survived at all," Ray said after the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded him its lifetime achievement award last month. "I would have stopped making films and gone back to my old profession, advertising."
Ray accepted the statue in his hospital room in a ceremony later shown during the Oscar awards.
"When the history of movies is written, he will be unquestionably amongst the giants," British director Sir Richard Attenborough said Thursday in a statement.
Ray's productions were virtually one-man shows. He wrote the screenplay, cast the parts, designed the costumes, scored the music, directed, mixed and edited the final package.
Most of his films were set in Bengal, a dirt-poor but culturally rich region bordering Bangladesh, and all but one was in Bengali.
But they were not Indian movies. Nor, Ray often said with distaste, are they "art films." Their message was universal and their essence was "the human element."
They "deal with people, their problems and their relationships. Laughter, tears they're the same all over the world," Ray said in an interview this year.
He was a prolific author, not only of screenplays but also novels and children's stories. Detective stories, science fiction and fairy tales all were vehicles for his imagination.
He is survived by wife, Bijoya, and son, Sondeep, a film director. He was to be cremated Friday.
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