William D. Wittliff
William D. Wittliff | |
---|---|
Born | Taft, Texas, U.S. | January 21, 1940
Died | June 9, 2019 Austin, Texas, U.S. | (aged 79)
Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin |
Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, photographer |
Years active | 1964 – 2019 |
William Dale Wittliff (January 21, 1940 – June 9, 2019), sometimes credited as Bill Wittliff, was an American screenwriter, author, and photographer who wrote the screenplays for The Perfect Storm (2000), Barbarosa (1982), Raggedy Man (1981), and many others.
Early life
Wittliff was born in
In 1964, he started his own publishing house, Encino Press. The last book from the Encino Press was Blue & Some Other Dogs by John Graves, issued in 1981.[2]
Career
Wittliff wrote Country (1984), and the film would have been his directorial debut, but he quit after his cinematographer was fired.
Wittliff met
Wittliff wrote screenplays for the
In 1986, Wittliff founded the Southwest Writers Collection at Texas State University, which featured work by authors and songwriters from Texas and the American Southwest. In 1996, he founded the Wittliff Collection of Southwestern and Mexican Photography at the university. The university's holdings, now renamed the Wittliff Collections, have grown to become one of the most extensive archives of Southwestern materials in the United States, two key collections being the papers of writers Cormac McCarthy and Sandra Cisneros. The archive also features an exhibition containing items from Lonesome Dove.
Wittliff was also a distinguished photographer. His photographs are included in the books Vaquero: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy (2004), La Vida Brinca (2006), and A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove (2007).
Personal life
In 1996, Wittliff was recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award. In 2001, Wittliff was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. In 1959, he was initiated as a member of the Tau chapter of Kappa Sigma at the University of Texas and in 2012 became the fraternity's 79th recipient of the Man of the Year distinction.[4] In 2014, Wittliff and his wife Sally Wittliff, an attorney in Austin, Texas, were awarded honorary doctor of letters degrees by Texas State University.
Wittliff died on June 9, 2019, in Austin from a
References
- ^ a b Sandomir, Richard (June 13, 2019). "Bill Wittliff, 'Lonesome Dove' Screenwriter and Son of Texas, Dies at 79" – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Printing Arts from the Handbook of Texas Online
- ^ Alison Macor. Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids 30 Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas University of Texas Press: Austin, 2010.
- ^ Kappa Sigma 2012 Man of the Year
- ^ "William D. Wittliff, Screenwriter on 'Lonesome Dove' and 'Legends of the Fall,' Dies at 79". The Hollywood Reporter. June 10, 2019.
- ^ Barnes, Michael. "Bill Wittliff, 'Lonesome Dove' screenwriter and Texas State archive namesake, has died". Austin 360. Retrieved Jun 11, 2019.