Midnight Cowboy director removed from life support

Ailing British-born filmmaker John Schlesinger, the Oscar-winning director of Midnight Cowboy, was taken off life support at a hospital in Palm Springs, California, last night, his spokeswoman said.

The 77-year-old filmmaker suffered a stroke in December 2000. Spokeswoman Ronni Chasen said that his condition at the Desert Regional Medical Centre had deteriorated significantly in recent weeks.

Schlesinger’s last film was the 2000 comedy The Next Best Thing – which starred Madonna as a straight woman who decides to have a child with her gay friend, played by Rupert Everett.

Born in London in 1926, Schlesinger was a character actor for stage, film and television and also made documentaries such as Terminus, about a day in the life of a train station.

He is perhaps best known for the 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy, which starred Jon Voight as a naive Texan who turns to prostitution to survive on the streets of New York, and Dustin Hoffman as the scuzzy, ailing vagrant Ratzo Rizzo.

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three – best director, best picture and best adapted screenplay.

Schlesinger had two other Oscar nominations for directing 1971’s Sunday Bloody Sunday and 1965’s Darling.

As an actor, he had small roles as a doctor in the 1997 TV movie The Twilight of the Golds and a prisoner in the 1956 Second World War drama The Battle of the River Plate.

Schlesinger lives in Palm Springs with photographer Michael Childers, his companion of 30 years.