FAVORITE OF THE WEEK: William Goldman - Writer of Iconic Stories, famous for his original screenplay, "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid"

Welcome to Up Close and Personal. Once a week, on a Sunday, a favorite author, journalist will be featured as ‘Favorite of the Week”. The article will give them more exposure and publicity about their recent work.

This week we choose William Goldman. He is a writer of iconic stories, a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter for writing original screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He also won an Academy Award for writing Adapted screenplay for All the President’s Men.. He shocked the film world in 1969 by earning an unprecedented $400,000 for the screenplay of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid became a 1969 Western film starring the late film director, Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actor, Paul Newman and Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, Robert Redford.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was the top grossing film of the year. The film won Oscars in four of the seven categories within which it had been nominated, including awards for its screenplay and best film.

Because he is not a director or an actor, many people outside the movie industry do not know the name William Goldman, but those within or around the industry certainly do.

Mr. Goldman grew up in a Jewish family in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois. He graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. degree and an M.A degree at Columbia University in 1956.

He began writing when he took a creative writing class in college. His main interest were poetry, short stories and novels. He later published five novels and had three plays produced on Broadway before he began to write screenplays.

Among the many other popular scripts written by Mr. Goldman are The Stepford Wives (1975), Marathon Man (based on his novel) (1976); All the President's Men; (1976) A Bridge Too Far (1977); The Princess Bride (1987) Misery (1990); Chaplin (1992); Maverick (1994) and Absolute Power (1997).

Simon Morgenstern is a pseudonym and a narrative device invented by Mr. Goldman to add another layer to his novel The Princess Bride.

William Goldman was married to Ilene Jones until their divorce in 1991. The couple had two children.

To purchase his books please visit AMAZON and Barnes and Noble