William Peter Blatty, the author of novel The Exorcist and writer of its Oscar winning film died at age 89.
Blatty was the author of several books. His leading success was the 1971 novel which told the story of a possessed 12 year old girl.
The novel was panned by critics. But it met with commercial success, selling 13 million copies and topping the NYT Bestseller list for 17 weeks.
Blatty won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay of the book for a 1973 film and later directed a sequel, in 1990 called The Exorcist III.
Blatty died on 12th Jan 2017 suffering from a rare form of cancer, multiple myeloma.
He also specialized in comedy, writing Promise Her Anything (1965), which starred Warren Beatty, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) and The Great Bank Robbery (1969).
He also wrote the Pink Panther sequel Shot in the Dark. Another cult film he scripted was Darlin Lili which starred Rock Hudson and Julie Andrews.
