Hollywood is mourning the loss of two figures who have earned acclaim over the decades following the death in a road accident of the actor Treat Williams, 71, and the passing of No Country For Old Men author Cormac McCarthy aged 89.
According to reports Williams, who starred in Everwood and Hair, died on Monday afternoon after an incident involving his motorcycle and a car in Dorset, Vermont.
Besides a recurring role in the WB series Everwood, Williams’ screen credits include Hair for Milos Forman and 1941 for Steven Spielberg, both in 1979; Sidney Lumet’s Prince Of The City in 1981; Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America in 1984; and 1995’s Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead.
Williams was born in December 1951 in Connecticut and moved to Vermont later in life. Friends and admirers took to Twitter to express their condolences.
“Treat was about the nicest, most likeable guy you could imagine,” wrote Sam Neill, while Confirmation co-star Kerry Washington said, “I will forever be grateful that he lent us his talent and grace.”
Illeana Douglas called Williams’ work on Prince Of The City “an indelible performance”, and Malcolm McDowell called his death ”a great loss to the acting community”.
Separately, McCarthy’s publisher confirmed the writer passed away of natural causes on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
McCarthy was regarded as one of America’s finest authors. Among his books that were adapted for the big screen and his screenplays were The Road, All The Pretty Horses, The Counselor, and Child Of God.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island on July 20 1933, McCarthy and his family moved to Tennesee after his lawyer father got a new job. McCarthy attended University of Tennessee before dropping out to join the Air Force and then embarked on his writing career. He won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Road in 2007.
Stephen King, writing on Twitter, called McCarthy “maybe the greatest American novelist of my time”. The Scottish historian and braodcaster William Dalrymple noted, ”For me, Cormac was the greatest prose stylist of our time & Blood Meridian probably my favourite contemporary novel.”
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