Oscar-Winning ‘Dances With Wolves’ Author/Screenwriter
Michael Blake Has Died
Deadline Hollywood
By Mike Fleming Jr.
May 2, 2015
After a long illness, Dances With Wolves author and
screenwriter Michael Blake died today in Tucson, Arizona where he and his
family lived for many years. He was 69.
His passing was confirmed by his manager and producer Daniel Ostroff, who is
working on a Dances With Wolves sequel, The Holy Road.
Blake’s best known novel sold over 3.5 million copies,
and was translated into 15 languages. The 1990 film, which Kevin Costner
directed and starred in, won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best
Screenplay for Blake. He also won the WGA Award and Golden Globes for his
script. Blake is survived by his widow, Marianne Mortensen Blake, whom he
married in 1993. He is also survived by their three children, whom he named
after historic Native Americans. The children’s names are 18-year old Quanah
Valdemar Blake, 17-year old Monahsetah Dagmar Blake and 14-year old Lozen
Ingefred Blake. He is also survived by a younger brother, Daniel Webb.
Blake also wrote the books The Holy Road, Airman
Mortensen, Marching to Valhalla, Indian Yell, Twelve The King, and the
autobiographical Like A Running Dog, which detailed his career in writing and
Hollywood. A sequel to the latter book will be published soon. Blake was
internationally acclaimed for his humanitarian work on behalf of Native
Americans and America’s wild horses. The family is asking for privacy but asks
that any donations be made in his name to ISPMB which benefits the horses he
loved so much.
As for his screenplay work, Blake last adapted the
classic German novel, Winnetou for Constantin Films. Costner, who collaborated
with Blake on Stacey’s Knight and Dances With Wolves, commissioned Blake to
write two other screenplays, The Mick and The One, the latter of which was
based on a Blake short story. Broadway producer Matt Murphy developed a stage
version of Dances With Wolves.
BLAKE, Michael (Michael Lennox Blake)
Born: 7/5/1945, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Died: 5/2/2015 Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.
Michael Blake’s westerns – author, screenwriter:
Dances With Wolves – 1990 [author, screenwriter]
Winnetou – 2010 [screenwriter]
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