David Seidler, the screenwriter of the Oscar-winning film The King's Speech, has passed away at the age of 86.

THR reports that he passed away Saturday while in New Zealand on a fly-fishing trip, according to his manager, Jeff Aghassi. No cause of death has been revealed.

The prolific writer was also known for Tucker: The Man and His Dream, a film by Francis Ford Coppola, the animated movie Madeline: Lost in Paris, and Quest for Camelot. Additionally, he penned The Queen of Spades and Onasis: The Richest Man in the World.

David Seidler and The King's Speech

As for The King's Speech, Seidler was inspired to work on the film due to the stutter he had as a child. The movie is about King George VI (played by Colin Firth), who overcame an extremely severe stutter with the help of a therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). The speech that Logue ultimately helped with was a wartime message before World War 2.

The writer won an Oscar for original screenplay at the 2022 Academy Awards. The movie also won for Best Actor (Firth), Best Director (Tom Hooper), and Best Picture.

When he accepted the award, Seidler said, “My father always said to me I would be a late bloomer. I believe I'm the oldest person to win this award.”

Along with an Oscar, he won two BAFTAs and the Humanitas Prize for the film, Mirror reports.

David seems like the perfect fit for writing the screenplay. He started researching King George VI in 1981 when he learned of the Queen Mother tracking down a speech therapist.

Remarking on his own devastating stuttering, Seidler told the Stuttering Foundation that he had the condition from his third birthday to when he was 16.

“I had a huge trouble with the H sound, so when the telephone rang, I would break into a cold sweat because I couldn't say hello,” he said.

The writer added, “I don't know if school still works this way, but in those days you had set places, and the teacher worked up and down the rows. If I could see her working toward me and she was just going to miss me that day, I would fake sick the next day, so I didn't have to go to school because it was so terrifying to be called upon. There came a period when I was actually excused from responding in class. I didn't have to speak in class. It was that bad.”

As for his final destination, Aghassi said, “David was in the place he loved most in the world — New Zealand — doing what gave him the greatest peace which was fly-fishing. It is exactly as he would have scripted it if given the chance.”

David Seidler is survived by his children, Maya and Marc.

RIP.