William Goldman, who won Academy Awards for his screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men and was also a prolific novelist, died November 16, the New York Times reported. He was 87. Goldman "viewed the film business with a jaundiced eye. As he often pointed out, he considered himself not a screenwriter but a novelist who wrote screenplays."
Goldman's books include the novels The Princess Bride and Marathon Man (both adapted into hit movies); The Temple of Gold; Boys and Girls Together; and No Way to Treat a Lady; along with nonfiction works Adventures in the Screen Trade; Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade; and The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood?.
Stephen King tweeted: "So sorry to hear of the passing of William Goldman. He was both witty and talented. His screenplay of my book Misery was a beautiful thing. Rest In Peace, Bill."
In an appreciation of Goldman's work, Jason Bailey observed in the Times that his legacy "would have been assured had he only written screenplays.... But Goldman wrote more than screenplays. Aside from his engaging short stories and novels (including the source materials for Princess Bride and Marathon Man), he wrote several noteworthy volumes of commentary about the entertainment industry, offering an insider's view that cleared the smoke and smashed the mirrors. And he carried that refreshing candor into his interviews and profiles, carving out a reputation as one of the few heavyweights who dared to demystify the business."
Mike Lupica, a longtime friend and one-time collaborator (Wait 'Till Next Year, 1988), wrote in the Boston Globe that he had been on tour promoting his latest book for young readers, No Slam Dunk, during the two weeks before Goldman's death. "At every stop, knowing how little time Bill had left, I would ask how many of the kids knew The Princess Bride," Lupica recalled. "Just about every hand in the gym would go up. Then, I'd have them all shout out, 'Feel better, Mr. Goldman,' even knowing that he never would.
"I would have one of the teachers take videos of that shout-out, then e-mail them to Bill and Susan [Burden, his partner]. We started to call them Bill's daily pep rallies--proof that a whole new generation of children knew about Westley and Buttercup and Inigo Montoya. Maybe it helped convince the great William Goldman that, even as he was leaving us, his stories would live forever. I hope so. It really always was about the stories. As he wished."