'Stepford Wives' director Bryan Forbes dies aged 86

British film director Bryan Forbes, who made the 1970s sci-fi horror classic "The Stepford Wives", has died aged 86, a family friend said on Wednesday. Forbes passed away at his home in Surrey, southern England, "following a long illness" and was surrounded by his family, including the actress Nanette Newman, according to his friend, the journalist Matthew D'Ancona. "Bryan Forbes was a titan of cinema, known and loved by people around the world in the film and theatre industries and known in other fields including politics," D'Ancona said in a statement. "He is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that he died surrounded by his family." "The Stepford Wives" (1975) based on a novella by Ira Levin, tells the story of a woman who moves to a conservative American town only to find out that the bland, submissive women who live there are actually robots. Forbes also directed "Whistle Down the Wind" (1961), about three English farm children who discover a fugitive living in their barn and believe he is Jesus.