Author, William Diehl Dies at Age 81

American author, William Diehl, best known as being writer of the bestseller, ?Primal Fear? died after succumbing to aortic embolism. Diehl passed away at Emory University Hospital at the age of 81. Diehl began his writing career at a relatively late age ? 50 ? and went on to write 9 published novels. He was working on his tenth novel when he died. His wife, Virginia Gunn and friends have said that the novel will be published next year sometime.

Diehl was a writer for Journal-Constitution and worked for many years as magazine editor and freelance photographer. His beginnings as a book writer could have come straight out of a novel itself - while serving as a juror during a trial, Diehl became bored with the goings on around him and started jotting down the first chapter of what was to become his first published novel, ?Sharky?s Machine? in 1978. The book gained major acclaim and soon became a screenplay, starring Burt Reynolds.

Diehl, a war veteran who served as a ball turret gunner on a B-24 bomber in World War Two, went on to write several more novels. His most famous book was undoubtedly his 1993 thriller, ?Primal Fear? which, too, became a film starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton in 1996. Diehl was known for incorporating the names of friends and acquaintances into his novels and building characters around them. His best friend, Michael Parver, for example, was transformed into a dirty cop in one of his novels.

                                 

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