Novelist and filmmaker William Peter Blatty, a former Jesuit school valedictorian who conjured a tale of demonic possession and gave millions the fright of their lives with the best-selling novel and Oscar-winning movie "The Exorcist," has died. Blatty died Thursday at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he lived, his widow, Julie Alicia Blatty, told The Associated Press. It reached a far wider audience through the movie version, directed by William Friedkin, produced and written by Blatty and starring Linda Blair as the young, bedeviled Regan. "RIP William Peter Blatty, who wrote the great horror novel of our time," Stephen King tweeted Friday. Blatty returned to the "Exorcist" setting in "Legion," which he adapted into "The Exorcist III."

Source: Fox News January 13, 2017 17:09 UTC