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 bestselling novel and Oscar-winning movie “The Exorcist,” has died. Blatty died Thursday at a hospital in Bethesda, Md., 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. “He was an absolutely wonderful, kind, generous, faith-filled man, and I was very blessed to be his wife,” Julie Blatty said.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 13, 2017 16:45 UTC