William Reinhold "Gatz" Hjortsberg (February 23, 1941 – April 22, 2017) was an American novelist and screenwriter, known for his originality and for writing the screenplay of the film Legend. His novel Falling Angel was the basis for the film Angel Heart (1987). The novel was adapted into an opera in 2015, composed by J. Mark Scearce with a libretto by Lucy Thurber. His 2015 novel Mañana is a thriller set in Mexico. Hjortsberg the only child of a Swedish restaurateur father and a Swiss mother. He attended Dartmouth College, the Yale School of Drama (where he met Thomas McGuane), and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He was married three times, and had a son and a daughter. He died of pancreatic cancer. Novels Alp (1969) Gray Matters (1971) Symbiography (1973) Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974) Falling Angel (1978) Tales & Fables (1985), published by Sylvester & Orphanos Nevermore (1994) Mañana (2015) Angel's Inferno (2020) Screenplays Thunder and Lightning (1977) The Georgia Peaches (1980) (TV) Legend (1985) Nonfiction A biography of writer Richard Brautigan. References External links William Hjortsberg official website 1941 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American novelists American horror writers American male novelists American mystery writers American science fiction writers American male screenwriters Writers from New York City 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Screenwriters from New York (state) Deaths from pancreatic cancer Deaths from cancer in Montana