Richard Matheson, the legendary science fiction novelist and television writer, has died at age 87.
Ali Matheson, his daughter and a screenwriter herself, confirmed her father’s death on Facebook, notes The Wrap. He died Sunday at his Calabasas, California home.
“My beloved father passed away yesterday at home surrounded by the people and things he loved...he was funny, brilliant, loving, generous, kind, creative, and the most wonderful father ever,” Ali Matheson shared. “I miss you and love you forever Pop and I know you are now happy and healthy in a beautiful place full of love and joy you always knew was there.”
He was born in New Jersey in 1926 and raised in Brooklyn. He earned a degree in journalism at the University of Missouri, but by the time he moved to California, it was obvious that his talents lied in fiction. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he sold Born of Man and Woman to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950, kicking off his long career.
Matheson quickly proved to be among the best short story writers in the genre, writing classics like Duel, which would be turned into a television movie by a young Steven Spielberg for his directorial debut.
“Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories and gave me my first break when he wrote the short story and screenplay for Duel,” Spielberg said in a statement to THR. “His Twilight Zone,s were among my favorites, and he recently worked with us on Real Steel. For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov.”
He penned 17 Twilight Zone episodes. His story Steel was the basis for one of those episodes, as well as Hugh Jackman’s Reel Steel. He also wrote episodes for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Lawman.
One of his best known works is I Am Legend, which was turned into a film with Will Smith in 2007. It was also the basis for Charlton Heston’s Omega Man and The Last Man on Earth.
image: Amazon