CHARIOTS OF FIRE Scribe Colin Welland Dies at 81

Deadline reports that Colin Welland, who won an Academy Award for screewriting for the 1981 Oscar-winning film CHARIOTS OF FIRE, has died at the age of 81 following a long battle with Alzheimer's.

Both a writer and an actor, Welland also appeared in the TV show Z Cars and and acted in Ken Loach's Kes and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. His other writing credits include wrote Twice In A Lifetime and the Marlon Brando Apartheid drama A Dry White Season and the 1979 film "Yanks."

A statement released by his family via Welland's agent Anthony Jones reads: "Colin will be desperately missed by his family and friends. Alzheimer's is a cruel illness and there have been difficult times but in the end Colin died peacefully in his sleep. We are proud of Colin's many achievements during his life but most of all he will be missed as a loving and generous friend, husband, father and granddad."