William Goldman (US novelist, playwright, and screenwriter) Add a review

William Goldman (August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018) was an American novelist, screenwriter and playwright who wrote 16 novels and numerous screenplays in a career spanning seven decades. He received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Best Screenplay from the BAFTAs and Golden Globes for his first original screenplay, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for All the President's Men (1976). Both of these films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, along with The Princess Bride (1987) which he adapted from his 1973 novel, and all three were included on the 2006 list by the Writers Guild of America of the 101 Greatest Screenplays. Among his other accolades were three Writers Guild of America Awards, including the 1985 Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement, two Edgar Awards for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

Goldman collaborated twice each with George Roy Hill, Peter Yates, Richard Attenborough, Rob Reiner, and Simon West. He adapted his novels Marathon Man (1974, filmed in 1976), Magic (1976, filmed in 1978), and Heat (1985, filmed in 1986 and as Wild Card in 2015.) His screenplays for Misery (1990), Hearts of Atlantis (2001), and Dreamcatcher (2003) were all adapted from works by Stephen King, and he later adapted Misery for the stage in 2012. His other produced plays, Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole (1961) and A Family Affair (1962) were collaborations with his brother James Goldman, also an Academy Award-winning writer. Goldman's other screenplays include The Stepford Wives (1975), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Chaplin (1992) and The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), and he was an uncredited script doctor on Twins (1988), A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal, Last Action Hero (both 1993), and Fierce Creatures (1997). In his later years he served as a mentor to a number of writers, including A Few Good Men writer Aaron Sorkin. His nonfiction books include The Season: A Candid Look at Broadway (1969), the memoirs Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983) and Which Lie Did I Tell? (2000), and the essay collection The Big Picture (2001).

Though Goldman was self-effacing of his own work, Sean Egan said his achievements were made "without ever lunging for the lowest common denominator. Although his body of work has been consumed by millions, he has never let his populism overwhelm a glittering intelligence and penchant for upending expectation."