I just found out today when someone on another board pointed it out to me. It's a terrible shame - RIP to a wonderful visionary.

It's strange that in this age of the Internet, deaths like Anthony Minghella's still slip by unnoticed by a lot of people. Communication is so scattered these days that in many ways, I wonder if we're less informed than we used to be when everyone (well, many people) read the newspaper and watched the night report. I knew about Mr. Minghella's death a few days after the fact, but I know a lot of people didn't find out until months later.

Wow! I just came across it myself completely by fluke. I was browsing Wikipedia. Went from The Beaches, to the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, to In the Skin of a Lion, to The English Patient, and then to Anthony Minghella and BAM! There was his date of death.
Shocking, he was a very talented man and obviously had a lot more to create. He would have made many more great films. It's sad, really.