Private Service to Be Held for Director Duncan Gibbins

A private memorial service for Duncan Gibbins, the British director and screenwriter who died Wednesday of burns suffered while he was trying to save a cat during the Calabasas/Malibu fire, will be held today at the Writers Guild Theater.

Gibbins, whose film credits included “Fire With Fire” (1987), which was his first American picture and starred Virginia Madsen; “Eve of Destruction” (1989) with Gregory Hines, and “Third Degree Burn” (1988), an HBO production with Madsen and Treat Williams, was 41. He died at Sherman Oaks Hospital and Health Center.

Gibbins came to the United States after a lengthy career with the British Broadcasting Corp., where he wrote, produced or directed more than 200 short films dealing with subjects as varied as political confrontations in Northern Ireland and beach pollution in France.

Gibbins’ survivors include his mother, Yvonne, an uncle and four cousins. The family asks that donations in his name be made to either Heal the Bay, an environmental group, or the Sherman Oaks Burn Center.