William Goldman, Oscar-Winning Writer Of ‘The Princess Bride’ And ‘Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid’, Dead At 87
By Ben Pearson/Nov. 16, 2018 7:05 am EST
Born in Illinois in 1931, Goldman started writing in a creative writing class when he attended Oberlin College, eventually going on to publish 16 novels, five short stories, a children’s book, more than two dozen movies, and several non-fiction books, including The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway, Adventures in the Screen Trade: A Personal View of Hollywood and Screenwriting, and The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood? and Other Essays.
In the 1960s, Goldman was the highest paid screenwriter of all time up to that point; he became a celebrity screenwriter – a rarity in Hollywood, when most writers were practically invisible. He won Oscars for writing the screenplays for Butch Cassidy and All The President’s Men – one of the most iconic Westerns of all time and one of the best journalism movies ever made. Not bad. But I’ll always love him the most for writing The Princess Bride, a brilliantly-constructed swashbuckling adventure movie that might just be a perfect film. Later in life, he became one of Hollywood’s best known script doctors, delivering uncredited contributions to countless movies along the way.
Goldman leaves a body of excellent work behind him, including movies like Misery, The Stepford Wives, Chaplin, Maverick, Absolute Power, and more.
