William Goldman

American master William Goldman has passed away at age 87. There was simply none better. His writing touched so many in so many ways.

I have no idea how many times I've personally seen The Princess Bride. It's simply beyond count. To let you know how much my family loved that movie and how much Goldman's writing permeated our lives, whenever I dropped my kids off at school I would say goodbye by saying, "Have fun storming the castle."

Every time.

In his tributes the movies All the President's Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid usually get the spotlight.  Mostly because journalists are writing these tributes and obviously All the President's Men is their industry holy grail. And Goldman won an Oscar for Butch Cassidy (as he also did for All the President's Men).

For me, the movie other than Princess Bride from Goldman that has been part of the fabric of my life is Marathon Man. Interestingly enough Goldman wrote both the books and screenplays for those two movies.

In Marathon Man it takes a master to turn an innocent question of "Is it safe?' into an object of terror. Perhaps Dustin Hoffman's best work with an unforgettable performance by Sir Laurence Olivier as the Nazi Christian Szell. Let's not forget excellent supporting performances by Roy Scheider and William Devane.

Pain is one of the main plot devices in both The Princess Bride (the pain machine and the awesome "to the pain" speech) and also obviously in Marathon Man's  "Is it safe?" scene.  Goldman is also well known for the quote, "Life is pain, anyone who says differently is selling something." I like to think this understanding of true pain came from Goldman being a "long-suffering" New York Knicks fan. I think that James Dolan could believably be listed as Goldman's cause of death by an honest coroner.

One last thing - Goldman did not write Lord of the Flies. That was William Golding. Common mistake.