Hercules Bellville passed away on Saturday February 21at the age of 69 following a fifteen month fight with lung cancer.

Born in San Diego, California to an American mother and an English father, Bellville attended boarding school in Britain and went on to study modern languages at Oxford. He started out in the film business as a runner.

A long association with Roman Polanski began in 1964. He was assistant director on Polanski's Repulsion and the pair continued to work together on Cul-de-Sac, Macbeth, What', The Tenant, Tess and Pirates.

He spent time in America working on films such as Hal Ashby's Being There and Bob Rafelson's The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 1983 he co-produced Matthew Chapman's Stranger's Kiss.

A year later he relocated to England where he worked with London based production outfit, Recorded Picture Company. He was in charge of creative affairs and a director of the company until his death.

During his time at Recorded Picture Company he was involved in the production of a number of films including Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor and Rafelson's Blood and Wine. He was associate producer of Jeremy Thomas' All The Little Animals and Bertolucci's The Dreamers.

Jeremy Thomas, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company, described him as 'an irreplaceable friend and colleague.'

Chris Auty, who previously worked as chief executive of Recorded Picture Company, said 'He had considerable intellect and a great affection for people. Under this rather crusty manner he was the warmest human being. That's why so many artists and film directors loved him.'

Bellville is survived by his long standing companion Ilana Shulman.