Melissa Mathison, the talented scriptwriter whose words brought E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial into the world, has died in Los Angeles. She was 65.
A native of LA, she attended UC Berkeley and was best known for her work with Steven Spielberg, for whom she wrote the stranded alien classic. “Melissa delivered this 107-page first draft to me and I read it in about an hour,” Spielberg has said of her screenplay. “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.”
But Mathison’s career went beyond her collaboration with the director – she also wrote 1979’s The Black Stallion, 1995’s The Indian In The Cupboard, Martin Scorsese’s 1997 film Kundun (which led to a friendship with the Dalai Lama) and oversaw the English language translation of Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo.
She recently reunited with Spielberg to provide the script for his next film, Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG, which will be seen in cinemas on July 22 next year. Mathison was married to Harrison Ford between 1983 and 2004, and is survived by their two children, Malcom and Georgia.