'E.T.' Screenwriter Melissa Mathison Dies at 65
By Pat Saperstein
Melissa Mathison, who was Oscar-nominated for original screenplay for Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and also wrote The Black Stallion, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after an illness, her brother Dirk Mathison confirmed. She was 65.
She recently reunited with Spielberg to write the screenplay for Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG, which is in post-production. Mathison, who was married to Harrison Ford from 1983 to 2004, had two children with the actor, Malcolm and Georgia.
Mathison also served as associate producer on E.T., which was produced by Kathleen Kennedy.
Spielberg, who worked closely with Mathison on the concept for the film, described her input on a DVD special edition, “Melissa delivered this 107-page first draft to me and I read it in about an hour. I was just knocked out. It was a script I was willing to shoot the next day. It was so honest, and Melissa’s voice made a direct connection with my heart.”
Mathison explained on the DVD: “I would write for four or five days in my little office in Hollywood, and then drive out to Marina Del Rey where Steven Spielberg was editing in a little apartment on the beach. I’d bring him my pages and we’d sit and go through them…It took about eight weeks for us to get the first draft, which was quite fast I think.”
She also wrote screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s 1997 Kundun, during which she started a friendship with the film’s subject, the Dalai Lama.
Her other screenplays included another Kennedy-Marshall film, The Indian in the Cupboard, and The Escape Artist. She wrote a segment in the Twilight Zone movie as well as writing TV movie Son of the Morning Star.
Mathison was born in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.
