A Master Passes Away

Alas these years more and more of "The Greats" are passing away.

British film producer John Brabourne dies at 80

LONDON (AFP) - Veteran British film producer John Brabourne, whose many movies included "A Passage to India" and "Murder on the Orient Express", has died at the age of 80.

Lord Brabourne passed away Thursday at his home in Kent, southeast England, with his wife of 60 years Countess Mountbatten of Burma and their six surviving children at his side, a spokesman for his family said on Friday. Details of the cause of death were not released.

Brabourne produced many films based on author Agatha Christie's murder mysteries, including "Murder on the Orient Express", "Death on the Nile", "The Mirror Crack'd" and "Evil Under the Sun".

He also produced "A Passage to India," directed by David Lean, in 1984, as well as "Othello" with Lawrence Olivier in 1965 and "Up The Junction" and "Romeo and Juliet" in 1967.

He was part of a boat party that was blown up by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at Mullaghmore Bay in the Irish republic in 1979. The dead included his mother, his 14-year-old son and his father-in-law Lord Mountbatten.