William Goldman, Butch Cassidy screenwriter, dies at 87
William Goldman, screenwriter of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men, has died aged 87.
Goldman, who received Oscars for both of those films, also wrote Marathon Man, Magic and The Princess Bride, which he adapted from his own novels.
His memoir Adventures in the Screen Trade is famous for his memorable declaration that “nobody knows anything” about the movie business.
He was also a noted “script doctor” who worked uncredited on many features.
Born in Highland Park, Illinois in 1931, Goldman started out as a novelist before breaking into movies with 1965 spy caper Masquerade.
He followed that with The Moving Target, also known as Harper, in which Paul Newman played a laconic private eye.