William Orbit, producer for Blur and Madonna, dead at 69Grammy-winning producer William Orbit has died aged 69. The message reads, “It is with profound sadness that the family and friends of William Orbit announce that William passed away at home on 23rd July 2026.” Orbit, born William Mark Wainwright in London in 1946, first began making waves in the music industry in the 1980s, before cementing his status as a producer in the ’90s. In 1998, when he joined forces with Madonna on Ray of Light, Orbit announced himself on the world stage as a producer. “There was a battle between Damon’s more experimental direction,” Orbit once remembered of the process of working with the Britpop icons, “And Graham’s punk one, and Graham prevailed.