Donald E. Westlake

From the late 1960s, Westlake found continued success as a writer in both literature and film. His 1967 God Save the Mark novel won the prestigious Edgar Award for Best Novel. Diverting from his more serious early work, Westlake ventured into more comical material beginning with 1965's The Busy Body, a crime caper that he had started as one of his hardboiled novels, but which kept turning out to be unexpectedly funny as he wrote and rewrote it. For the rest of his career, Westlake's prolific output followed a roughly 60/40 split in favor of his comic crime novels.His most successful character under his own name, hapless New York thief John Dortmunder, was introduced in The Hot Rock, which had originally been plotted as a Parker novel in which the career criminal ended up having to steal the same item multiple times. The antic comedy was a best-seller, and was turned into a 1972 movie of the same name starring Robert Redford as Dortmunder and George Segal as his perpetually optimistic right-hand man Andy Kelp. Several more of Westlake's novels were adapted into motion pictures, including the black comedy "Cops and Robbers" (1973), for which he also wrote the screenplay, "The Outfit" (1973) with Robert Duvall as a Parker-like criminal, and "Bank Shot" (1974) starring George C. Scott and based on the second Dortmunder novel. His most famous work written specifically for the screen was "The Stepfather" (1987), a critically-acclaimed horror film that spawned several sequels and a reboot in 2009. Westlake also found critical praise for his screenplay for the movie adaptation of Jim Thompson's pulp novel "The Grifters" (1990), winning his third Edgar Award for Best Screenplay and getting nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 1991 Academy Awards. In 1993, the New York city-based Mystery Writers of America bestowed upon Westlake their highest honor, the Grand Master Award, for recognition of his lifetime's works and achievements as a mystery and crime writer. During the holiday season of 2008, Westlake and his third wife Abigail Adams took a vacation in Mexico. However, the elderly author suffered a heart attack on December 31, 2008 while on the way to a New Year's Eve dinner. He was survived by his wife, four sons, two stepdaughters, and four grandchildren. As he was throughout his life, Westlake was productive until his death. Three of his novels were published posthumously: including a final Dortmunder caper, Get Real (2009). The ingenuity behind Westlake's last works were as apparent as they were in his prime, and were a continued source of material for Hollywood, such as 2013's "Parker," based on his 2000 novel Flashfire with action star Jason Statham as Westlake's iconic hard-boiled criminal. In the literary genre of crime fiction, few had ever had such a lasting legacy as the works of Donald Westlake. Donald E. Westlake died on December 31, 2008 in San Tancho, Mexico at the age of 75.