William Goldman, screenwriter of 'All the President's Men' and 'The Princess Bride,' dies

[sandensea]

William Goldman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter and Hollywood wise man who won Academy Awards for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men” and summed up the mystery of making a box office hit by declaring “nobody knows anything,” has died. He was 87.

Goldman’s daughter Jenny said her father died early Friday in New York due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia. “So much of what’s he’s written can express who he was and what he was about,” she said, adding that the last few weeks, while Goldman was ailing, revealed just how many people considered him family.

Goldman, who also converted his novels “Marathon Man,” “Magic,” “The Princess Bride” and “Heat” into screenplays, clearly knew more than most about what the audience wanted. He was not only a successful film writer but a top script doctor, the industry title for an uncredited writer brought in to improve or “punch up” weak screenplays.

He also made political history by coining the phrase “follow the money” in his script for “All the President’s Men,” adapted from the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the Watergate political scandal.

At: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/11/16/william-goldman-who-wrote-princess-bride/2024552002/

Legendary screenwriter William Goldman, 1931-2018. Follow the talent.

[Aristus]

1. The most moving thing he ever wrote was about when he was writing the novel 'The Princess Bride'.

He relates how he typed the sentence: "Westley lay dead on the table".

Then he says he wasn't able to write any more that day. He was so shocked that he had 'killed' Westley. He went from room to room, closing the blinds, pulling the shades, and turning off all the lights. He fell onto his bed and started crying, saying "He wasn't supposed to die!"

I found that very moving.

[sandensea]

2. Westley die? Inconceivable!

Thanks for the anecdote.

I imagine that's when he decided him to revive by way of the miracle workers (the incomporable Billy Crystal and Carol Kane).