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William Peter Blatty, whose name will go down in film history as the author of horror sensation The Exorcist, died last night, it has been announced. Initially a comic novelist, he started in the movies in association with Blake Edwards, scripting his huge Inspector Clouseau hit sequel A Shot in the Dark, still the funniest in the Pink Panther series. Once he published the purportedly based on a true story horror novel, he was invited to script it and the results, which he won an Oscar for, can still be felt in the cinema of today, such was its massive influence as an all-time classic of its form. So much so that Blatty struggled to escape its shadow, though the two films he directed, The Ninth Configuration and the troubled Exorcist III, went on to strong cult followings. |
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