Director Michael Winner dies age 77 (and here are some of his best contributions to social media)

Michael Winner who has died aged 77; was best known as a film director, restaurant critic and star of insurance commercials. But for a new generation of fans, over the past two years he was a cult hit o Twitter. Irascible, playful, surreal, rude and self-effacing, Winner won 38,000 followers with his forthrightness and blithe disregard for the finer rules of English. He even raised laughs with tweets about being seriously ill.

Here are just ten of his best tweets @MrMichaelWinner, we salute you...

1. "bought £1 pack of Haribo Starmix. Worst weets ever in history of my life, rubbery, tasteless, disgusting. 'Happy world of Haribo' Bollocks" 4 June 2012

2. "tomrrow they put a tube mytoe and run it thru to my mouth. then they add petrol and set fire to it so i can be dragon at jubileeparty" 9 May 2012

3. "My asst Dinah who was blown away and lodged in a tree yesterday is adapting well. She leaps from tree to tree. Ate 4 squirrels + woodpecker" June 2012

4. "I have risen, like a glorious sun in the sky, like a transcendental happening, like a God coming among his people. Aren't you all lucky." September 2011

5. "This 6am went up mountain tobogganed down over 2000 ft glacier ended up in restaurant had 11 waffles 5 eggs and bacon and exploded" 8 December 2011

6. "cloudy in london but i shall carrry on bravely fighting all vicissiitudes, leopards, lions,, budgerigars, ants, old ladies, teddy bears," 4 September 2012

7. "i apologise for vulgar language in last tweet, u dont like it f*** off. I am in typically good spirits" 1 August 2012

8. "had scan of heart+lungs this am, remarkable, took 1/2 hr and u dont even go into a tube, almost enjoyable - then resultsshowed i was dead" May 2012

9. "The Whooshy Monster & me have become good friends, in fact I think he's starting a relationship with me. Is it real?" 0 November 2012 (his last tweet)

10. "i am extremely docile today, so much so many people assume, not incorrectly, that i am dead. If I'm dead I will be there to haunt you" 2 August 2012

Leave a Comment

nanewt011 21st-Jan-2013 07:05 pm (UTC)

he tweeted from a vent? BAMF!

x_butterfly19_x 21st-Jan-2013 07:10 pm (UTC)

He was a character

nanewt011 21st-Jan-2013 07:12 pm (UTC)

ia, he was a tough motherfucker who was fighting hard to live, rip!

shangman 21st-Jan-2013 07:06 pm (UTC)

rip

near_dark 21st-Jan-2013 07:07 pm (UTC)

And he directed Death Wish!

cruel_idol 21st-Jan-2013 07:09 pm (UTC)

I loled, RIP

fabouluz 21st-Jan-2013 07:09 pm (UTC)

RIP I feel so bad that i never knew he had such an amusing twitter.

quizblorg 21st-Jan-2013 07:10 pm (UTC)

get_gone 21st-Jan-2013 08:07 pm (UTC)

I love at the end 'Did you ever expect to me on the same side as Michael Winner' and them just like 'uuuuuh nope'

hocus_pocus 21st-Jan-2013 07:13 pm (UTC)

i love that he was banned from nearly all restaurants

imkevinspacey 21st-Jan-2013 08:24 pm (UTC)

lol

I've never even been banned from one, what have I been doing with my life?

die2nitelive4ev 21st-Jan-2013 07:13 pm (UTC)

I cant think of him being an amusing old man because of the vile things he did as a director. Now is hardly to time to talk about it but google what Helen Mirren said about him.

m_h_p 21st-Jan-2013 07:20 pm (UTC)

Fuck it, I have no shame, and something like this should be seen:

Helen Mirren and Michael Winner in sexist spat

Two stalwarts of British film have begun a remarkable war of words after Dame Helen Mirren accused Michael Winner of treating her "like a piece of meat".

Dame Helen, 62, said that Winner was "insulting and sexist" and deliberately tried to humiliate her on the first - and only - time they met.

That was in 1964, when she was an up-and-coming actress while Winner, now more famous as a restaurant critic, was a film director.

She claimed that Winner made her turn around and show off her physique during a casting session. "I was mortified and incredibly angry," she said in an interview with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan.

"I thought it was insulting and sexist, and I don't think any actress should be treated like that - like a piece of meat - at all. Even if they haven't done the kind of work that I have done, it was incredibly insulting. I was so angry, I was so angry - I still am."

Winner, however, disputed Dame Helen's version of events, saying that he had only met her as a favour to her then agent, Margaret Johnston, who was worried that Mirren's refusal to wear a bra in publicity photographs would lose her work.

"I saw Helen and as I had been instructed to deal with the situation of her breasts, I did indeed ask her to stand up. I don't remember asking her to turn around but if I did I wasn't being serious," he said.

"I can see it now; she was wearing a peasant blouse and a skirt in the photographs - with enormous bosoms which were sagging a bit even though she was young. I was only doing what the agent asked me - and for this I get reviled!

"Helen's a lovely person, she's a great actress and I'm a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1572544/Helen-Mirren-and-Michael-Winner-in-sexist-spat.html

His restaurant columns were amusing, and he did great charity work for the police, but that doesn't mean he wasn't also a bit of a shit at times.

Edited at 2013-01-21 07:21 pm (UTC)

x_butterfly19_x 21st-Jan-2013 07:26 pm (UTC)

His restaurant columns were amusing, and he did great charity work for the police, but that doesn't mean he wasn't also a bit of a shit at times.

true say