Midnight Cowboy director dead at 77.

The British-born filmmaker had a debilitating stroke in December 2000, and his condition had deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. On Thursday, he was taken off life support at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. He died about 5:30 a.m., hospital spokeswoman Eva Saltonstall said.

I read about him being pulled off life support on Thursday but held off blogging about it cos I suspected (rightly) Schlesinger wouldn't be long for this world after that. Even when I first read about it, though, I was puzzled by the frankly bad reporting involved in this story... so he had a stroke two and a half years ago and was taken off life support yesterday. When did he go on life support in the first place? Surely he hasn't been on it all that time?

More on Schlesinger here.