William Goldman, Oscar-Winning Screenwriter of ‘Butch Cassidy,’ Dead at 87

William Goldman, the screenwriter best known for penning “All the President’s Men” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” has died at age 87. According to Deadline, Goldman’s health had been failing for sometime and he passed away surrounded by friends and family in his Manhattan home. Goldman started his career as a novelist before making the jump to screenwriter with the script for Basil Dearden’s 1965 comedy-thriller “Masquerade.”

“All The President’s Men” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” are widely considered to be Goldman’s greatest screenwriting achievements. “Butch Cassidy,” featuring the iconic pairing of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, won Goldman the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 42nd Academy Awards. Goldman won over scripts for “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Two for the Road” that year. He earned his second Oscar for “All The President’s Men,” which won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 49th Academy Awards over “Voyage of the Damned” and “Bound for Glory.”

Goldman’s other well-known screenplays include “The Princess Bride,” “Marathon Man,” “Flowers For Algernon,” “Misery,” “The Stepford Wives,” “A Bridge Too Far,” and “Chaplin,” which starred Robert Downey Jr. as the Little Tramp himself. Goldman was also known for being a behind-the-scenes script doctor, working with Aaron Sorkin on “A Few Good Men” and Amy Holden Jones on “Indecent Proposal.”

As an author, Goldman’s work includes his acclaimed memoir “Adventures in the Screen Trade,” often referred to as a bible for aspiring screenwriters. He also worked on scripts for “Papillon,” “The Right Stuff,” and “Mission: Impossible 2” that never got used. The last films to feature a Goldman screenplay were the Jason Statham-starring “Wildcard,” based on Goldman’s novel “Heat,” and “Dreamcatcher,” Lawrence Kasdan’s adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. Goldman also wrote the script for the 2018 short film “5 Minutes.”

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