William Peter Blatty facts for kids

Quick facts for kids William Peter Blatty
Blatty in 2009
Born	(1928-01-07)January 7, 1928 New York City, U.S.
Died	January 12, 2017(2017-01-12) (aged 89) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist screenwriter film director
Alma mater	Georgetown University (B.A., 1950) George Washington University (M.A., 1954)
Genre	Horror, drama, comedy
Spouse	Mary Margaret Rigard ​ ​ (m. 1950; div. 1963)​ Elizabeth Gilman ​ ​ (m. 1965; div. 1971)​ Linda Tuero ​ ​ (m. 1975; div. 1980)​ Julie Witbrodt ​ (m. 1983)​
Children	7; including J. T. Blatty

William Peter Blatty (January 7, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American writer, director, and producer. He is most famous for his scary 1971 novel, The Exorcist. He also wrote the script for the 1973 movie of the same name. Blatty won an Oscar for his Exorcist script. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, and he won a Golden Globe as a producer.

Blatty was born and grew up in New York City. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Georgetown University in 1950. Later, he got his master's degree in English literature from the George Washington University. After finishing his studies in 1954, he joined the United States Air Force. He worked in the Psychological Warfare Division and became a first lieutenant. After the Air Force, he worked for the United States Information Agency in Beirut.

After The Exorcist became a huge hit, Blatty rewrote his 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!. The new version was called The Ninth Configuration, published in 1978. He then turned this novel into a movie, The Ninth Configuration (1980). This was his first time directing a film. The movie won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture.

Blatty did not want to be involved with Exorcist II, the first sequel to The Exorcist. That movie was not well-liked by critics. However, he later wrote and directed the second sequel, The Exorcist III (1990). This film was based on his 1983 novel Legion. The Exorcist III was his last movie as a director and screenwriter. Blatty kept writing novels for the rest of his life. Some of his later books include Elsewhere (2009), Dimiter (2010), and Crazy (2010).

Early Life and Education

William Peter Blatty was born on January 7, 1928, in New York City. He was the youngest of five children. His parents were Lebanese immigrants. His mother, Mary, was a very religious Catholic. His father, Peter, was a cloth cutter. His parents separated when he was very young.

Blatty grew up in what he called "comfortable destitution." His mother supported them by selling homemade quince jelly on the streets of Manhattan. She once offered jelly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She told him, "For when you have company." Blatty lived in 28 different homes as a child. This was because his family often couldn't pay the rent. "We never lived at the same address in New York for longer than two or three months," Blatty said in 1972. His mother passed away in 1967.

He attended Brooklyn Preparatory, a Jesuit school, on a scholarship. He graduated in 1946 as the top student in his class. He then went to Georgetown University on another scholarship. He earned his bachelor's degree in English in 1950. Blatty said, "Those years at Georgetown were probably the best years of my life." He added, "Until then, I’d never had a home."

While studying for his master's degree at George Washington University, Blatty took many small jobs. He worked as a vacuum-cleaner salesman and a beer-truck driver. He also worked as a ticket agent for United Airlines. He earned his master's degree in English literature in 1954. After that, he joined the United States Air Force.

After leaving the Air Force, he worked for the United States Information Agency. He was an editor based in Beirut, Lebanon. Slowly, his writing skills became clear. He started sending funny articles to magazines.

Writing and Film Career

In the late 1950s, Blatty worked in public relations for universities. He published his first book, Which Way to Mecca, Jack?, in 1960. This book was a funny look at his early life. It also covered his time at the United States Information Agency. The book shared how he pretended to be a Saudi Arabian prince in Los Angeles.

In 1961, while still pretending to be a prince, Blatty appeared on the Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life. He won $10,000. This was enough money for him to quit his job and become a full-time writer. From then on, he never had a regular job.

He then wrote several funny novels. These included John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1963), I, Billy Shakespeare (1965), and Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane (1966). Critics liked these books. Marvin Levin from The New York Times said Blatty could write very funny lines. However, the books did not sell many copies.

Around this time, Blatty started working with director Blake Edwards. He wrote scripts for comedy movies. Some of these were A Shot in the Dark (1964) and What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966). He also wrote scripts for films like The Man from the Diners' Club (1963) and Promise Her Anything (1965).

Later, Blatty went back to writing novels. In 1971, he wrote The Exorcist. This book is about a 12-year-old girl who is taken over by a powerful demon. The book was a huge success. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list for 17 weeks. It stayed on the list for 57 weeks in a row. The book sold over 13 million copies in the U.S. and was translated into many languages.

Blatty later worked with director William Friedkin to adapt the book into the movie version. Blatty won an Academy Award for his Exorcist screenplay. He also won Golden Globes for Best Picture and Best Writing. The Exorcist was the first horror film ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

In 1978, Blatty rewrote his novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane as The Ninth Configuration. In 1980, he wrote, directed, and produced a movie based on it. This film explored the idea of whether God exists. The movie did not make much money, but critics loved it. Movie critic Jerry Stein called it a "masterpiece." Peter Travers said it was "the finest large-scale American surrealist film ever made." At the 38th Golden Globe Awards in 1981, it won the Best Writing Award.

In 1983, Blatty wrote Legion. This was a sequel to The Exorcist. It later became the movie The Exorcist III. Blatty wanted to direct the film himself. The movie's producers wanted the title to connect more to the original Exorcist film. The first sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), was not popular. Blatty had nothing to do with it, and his own sequel ignored it completely.

Blatty's son, Peter Vincent Blatty, passed away in 2006 at age 19 from a rare heart problem. His death led Blatty to write a non-fiction book. It was called Finding Peter: A True Story of the Hand of Providence and Evidence of Life After Death (2015). This book was partly a funny memoir and partly an argument for life after death.

In 2011, The Exorcist was re-released for its 40th Anniversary. This new edition had updated material. Other books by Blatty, The Ninth Configuration and Legion, were also re-published with new covers.

The Exorcist was later made into a stage play in 2012. It also became a TV mini-series that started in 2016 on Fox.

Personal Life

Blatty was married four times and had seven children. His first marriage was to Mary Margaret Rigard in 1950. They had three children: Christine Ann, Michael Peter, and Mary Joanne. This marriage ended after 13 years. His second wife was Elizabeth Gilman, whom he married in 1965. In 1975, he married his third wife, tennis player Linda Tuero. They had two children: Billy and photojournalist J. T. Blatty. After his first three marriages ended, Blatty married Julie Alicia Witbrodt in 1983. They had two children and stayed together until his death. After living in Hollywood and Aspen, Blatty moved to Bethesda, Maryland, in 2000.

Blatty was a Roman Catholic. In 2012, he made a complaint against his old university, Georgetown University. He said the university was not following Catholic Church teachings. The Vatican did not accept his complaint in 2014. However, they said Blatty's complaint was "well-founded."

William Peter Blatty passed away from a serious illness on January 12, 2017. He died in a hospital in Bethesda, just five days after his 89th birthday.

Awards and Recognition

William Peter Blatty received many awards for his work:

• The Commonwealth Club Silver Medal for Literature (for The Exorcist)
• The Gabriel Award and American Film Festival Blue Ribbon (for the Insight TV series episode "Watts Made Out of Thread?")
• Saturn Awards (for The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration, and The Exorcist III)
• The People's Choice Award for the Oscars – Best Picture Award (for The Exorcist)
• The Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award
• Academy Award, Best Adapted Screenplay (for The Exorcist)
• Golden Globe, Best Screenplay (for The Ninth Configuration)
• Golden Globe, Best Picture (for The Exorcist)
• Golden Globe, Best Screenplay (for The Exorcist)

Film Projects

Here are some of the films William Peter Blatty worked on:

See also

In Spanish: William Peter Blatty para niños

• List of horror fiction writers