Blake Edwards in 1966
William Blake Crump (July 26 1922 - December 15 2010), better known by his stage name, Blake Edwards, was an American filmmaker. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio scripts before turning to producing and directing in television and films. He eight of the first nine Pink Panther films starting with The Pink Panther (1963) (he did not direct Inspector Clouseau (1968)). At the time of making the 1970s-80s films, he was married to Julie Andrews; the spoof of her film The Sound of Music during the opening credits of The Pink Panther Strikes Again is an in-joke reference to this.