William Reinhold "Gatz" Hjortsberg[1][2] (February 23, 1941 – April 22, 2017[3][4]) was an American novelist and screenwriter, who wrote the screenplay of the film Legend.[2][5]
William Hjortsberg | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, New York, United States | February 23, 1941
Died | April 22, 2017 Livingston, Montana | (aged 76)
Occupation | Novelist, screenwriter |
Genre | Mystery, screenwriting |
Website | |
williamhjortsberg |
His novel Falling Angel was the basis for the film Angel Heart (1987).[6] The novel was adapted into an opera in 2015, composed by J. Mark Scearce with a libretto by Lucy Thurber.[4][7][8]
Hjortsberg was the only child of a Swedish restaurateur father and a Swiss mother. He attended Dartmouth College, the Yale School of Drama (where he met Thomas McGuane), and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He was married three times, and had a son and a daughter.[2][3] He died of pancreatic cancer.[2]