Writer, director and photographer Bill Wittliff, who penned the script for iconic 1980s television miniseries Lonesome Dove, died Sunday of a heart attack. He was 79.
Wittliffs numerous credits included screenplays for the 1994 film Legends of the Fall starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn; The Perfect Storm starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly in 2000; and the 1982 film Barbarosa starring Willie Nelson. He also wrote and directed the 1986 Western, Red Headed Stranger, which featured Nelson, Morgan Fairchild and R.G. Armstrong.
One of Wittliffs other achievements was co-founding Texas State Universitys archive of Southwestern writers.
His longtime friend, author and journalist Stephen Harrigan, said the filmmaker proved you didnt have to move to Hollywood to be successful in the industry.
“Its impossible to overstate the influence Bill had on writers, photographers and filmmakers, all throughout Austin, Texas and the United States,” Harrigan told the Austin American-Statesman Monday. “He made it possible for people with raging ambition to plant a flag iRead More – Source
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