William Peter Blatty (January 7, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel The Exorcist and for his screenplay for the 1973 film adaptation. Blatty won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Exorcist, and was nominated for Best Picture as its producer. The film also earned Blatty a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as producer.
Born and raised in New York City, Blatty received his bachelor's degree in English from Georgetown University in 1950, and his master's degree in English literature from the George Washington University. Following completion of his master's degree in 1954, he joined the United States Air Force and served in the Psychological Warfare Division where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. After service in the air force, he worked for the United States Information Agency in Beirut.
After the success of The Exorcist, Blatty reworked his 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane! into a new novel titled The Ninth Configuration, published in 1978. He went on to adapt the novel into the 1980 film, which was also his directorial debut. At the 38th Golden Globe Awards, the film won Best Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture.
Blatty refused to have any involvement with the first sequel to The Exorcist (1973); the film was critically panned. He directed the second sequel, The Exorcist III (1990), which he adapted from his 1983 novel Legion. His second film as a director, The Exorcist III was his final directorial credit and final screenplay credit. Some of his later novels include Elsewhere (2009), Dimiter (2010), and Crazy (2010).
Early life and education
Blatty was born on January 7, 1928, in New York City. He was the fifth
and youngest child of Lebanese immigrants, Mary (née Mouakad; ), a devout Melkite Catholic and the niece of bishop Germanos Mouakkad, and Peter Blatty (), a cloth cutter. His parents separated when he was a toddler. He lived at 28 different addresses during his childhood
Career
In the late 1950s, Blatty worked as the public relations director at Loyola University of Los Angeles and as a publicity director at the University of Southern California. The book also tells of his successful masquerade as a Saudi Arabian prince when he got to Los Angeles. In 1961, while still pretending to be a prince, Blatty appeared as a contestant on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life, winning $10,000,
He then published the comic novels: John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1963),
Later Blatty resumed writing fiction. His death was the subject of Blatty's non-fiction book that is "part comic memoir, part argument for life after death", titled, Finding Peter: A True Story of the Hand of Providence and Evidence of Life After Death (2015).</blockquote> Tor/Forge have also re-published The Ninth Configuration and Legion, with new, updated cover artwork.
The Exorcist was eventually adapted into a stage play starring Richard Chamberlain and Brooke Shields in 2012 and a sequel TV series starring Geena Davis was produced in 2016. With his first wife, Mary Margaret Rigard, whom he married on February 18, 1950, he had three children: Christine Ann, Michael Peter, and Mary Joanne. His first marriage ended in divorce after 13 years. His second wife was Elizabeth Gilman, whom he married in 1965. The marriage ended in divorce in 1971. The marriage ended in divorce in 1980. Following the dissolution of his first three marriages, The couple remained together until Blatty's death. In 2012, he filed a canon law petition against his alma mater, Georgetown University, which he said has been at variance with Catholic Church teaching for decades, inviting speakers who support abortion rights and disobeying Pope John Paul II's instructions issued to Church-affiliated colleges and universities in 1990. The Vatican rejected the petition in 2014. In the Vatican's response to Blatty, Archbishop Angelo Zani stated that the rejection was because Blatty had not "suffered an objective change" at Georgetown's hands, but acknowledged that Blatty's case constituted "a well-founded complaint".
Death
Blatty died of multiple myeloma on January 12, 2017, at a hospital in Bethesda, five days after his 89th birthday.
Critical studies
Studies of Blatty's work include G. S. J. Barclay's Anatomy of Horror: The Masters of Occult Fiction.
Critical essays on Blatty's work include Douglas E. Winter's essay in
A Dark Night's Dreaming: Contemporary American Horror Fiction, and S. T. Joshi's essay
"William Peter Blatty: The Catholic Weird Tale" in The Modern Weird Tale: A Critique of Horror Fiction (2001). Essays studying all Blatty's novels can be found in Benjamin Szumskyj's American Exorcist: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty (McFarland, 2008).
Awards
Awards include:
- The Commonwealth Club Silver Medal for Literature (The Exorcist)
- Won the 2000 Audie Awards award for Narration by the Author for The Exorcist.
- The Gabriel Award and American Film Festival Blue Ribbon for Insight TV series episode "Watts Made Out of Thread?"
- Saturn Awards for The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration and The Exorcist III
- The People's Choice Award for the Oscars – Best Picture Award for The Exorcist
- The Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award
- Academy Award, Best Adapted Screenplay (The Exorcist)
- Golden Globe, Best Picture (The Exorcist)
Bibliography
Novels
- Which Way to Mecca, Jack? (1959)
- I, Billy Shakespeare (1965)
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!scope="row"|John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
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|Credited as "Terence Clyne"
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| 1990
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See also
- List of horror fiction writers