Ismail Merchant, the Indian-born producer who, along with director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, created a modern genre of literate period pieces (A Room with a View, Howards End) that achieved both critical and commercial success, died on May 25, in a London shortly after a series of abdominal surgeries for stomach ulcers. He was 68.

He was born in Ismail Noormohamed Abdul Rehman on December 25, 1936 in Bombay, India. After his primary education in his homeland, he studied business administration at New York University. A lover of cinema since childhood, he co-directed the live-action short film The Creation of Woman (1961) which was nominated for an Academy Award. That same year, he met his future business and life partner James Ivory, when he was an up and coming film director in New York. Merchant accompanied Ivory to New Delhi when the latter was commissioned to shoot a documentary about Indian culture and a bond was soon formed and cemented with the birth of Merchant Ivory Productions in May 1961.

Their impressive teaming began when they approached novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala to adapt her work to film. She agreed, and was the adapted her own for the screen, resulting in The Householder (1963). The film was a modest commercial hit, and their follow-up, the wonderful ensemble piece Shakespeare Wallah (1965) about the loves and lives of an English theatrical troupe in India was a deserved international smash. More importantly, it established the themes that would recur in their films for years to come: culture and generational clashes, the examination and hypocrisy of social standings and romantic disillusionment.

A few more Indian themed films followed (The Guru (1969), Bombay Talkie (1970) followed before they decided to try their luck in the U.S. with The Wild Party (1975), a story of a failed silent comic (James Coco) in '20s Hollywood whose weekend party ends with tragic results. The film was not well received (although in fairness, the movie was drastically recut and reduced to just 88 minutes by its distributor and was littered with continuity problems, Ivory's original version at 101 minutes is available on DVD and is worth seeking out); but they rebounded with the superb Roseland (1977), a trilogy of stories set in the faded glory of a New York dance hall.

It wasn't until Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala took a stab at Henry James' The Europeans (1979) that they began to find their niche in literate period pieces. Other films followed: Jean Rhys' Quartet (1981); an adaptation of Jhabvala's own novel Heat and Dust (1983); Henry James again in The Bostonians (1984); and of course, the breakthrough hit, the gorgeously mounted, lively adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room With a View (1985). The film made a star out of Helena Bonham Carter; won three Oscars® (for Best Screenplay, Art Direction, and Costumes), and scored a Best Picture nomination for Merchant.

Merchant and Ivory found a groove, and followed this hit with more costume dramas: E.M. Forster was used again for Maurice (1987) a fine drama about a young man's awakening to his sexuality that made a star out of Hugh Grant; another Forster novel for his classic study of class conflict Howard's End (1992) that scored three Oscars® (Best Actress for Emma Thompson, Art Direction & Screenplay) and earned Merchant another Oscar nomination for Best Film; a beautiful rendering of Kazuo Ishiguros tale of unrequited love Remains of the Day (1993) that earned him his final Oscar® nomination for Best Picture; and finally, the underrated Jefferson in Paris (1995), which gave Nick Nolte one of his best roles. All of these films had varying degrees of international success, and proved to the world that "period drama" is not necessarily the antithesis of box office achievement - especially when the films are imbued with such warmth, attention to detail, and lyrical beauty that was the artistic mark of Merchant-Ivory (and their faithful screenwriter Jhabvala).

Merchant did on occasion try his hand at directing, and had modest art-house success with Cotton Mary (1999) and The Mystic Masseur (2001); yet fans of the Merchant-Ivory teaming will have a chance to enjoy one last curtain call with The White Countess (2005) starring Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson, which is in post-production and is scheduled to be released this fall. Aside form Ivory, Merchant is survived by sisters Saherbanu Kabadia, Sahida Retiwala, Ruksana Khan and Rashida Bootwala.

by Michael T. Toole