The death of William Goldman, screenwriter of several cult films, at the age of 87

Born in Highland Park, Illinois, William Goldman began as a novelist and published his first novel, 26, The Temple of Gold, well received by critics.

But as a screenwriter, he will be a worldwide success by writing an impressive series of Hollywood productions.

"Butch Cassidy and the Kid" (1969), with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, will be his famous passport, the film that allows him to win the Oscars for Best Screenplay.

(1976), "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), "Princess Bride" (1990), "The Men of the President" (1976) .

In an interview with PBS in 2000, he explained that he feared all his life to disturb the spectator and systematically used a series of "tricks" to entertain him.

"What I have is what we had when we started: a sense of dialogue and history," he said modestly, saying he did not have the ability to move on to staging.

He explained that there is no recipe for him to write the screenplay for a movie. "I would like to be one," he joked in this interview.

William Goldman chose all his life to live in New York, far from Hollywood, which he uprooted.

"Hollywood is full of lips and lies," he said during the PBS interview.

He even wrote a book, The Adventures in Screen Trade, in which he painted a vitriolic image of the cinema industry.