Victor Miller, the writer who penned the original “Friday the 13th” screenplay and gave the world Jason and Pamela Voorhees, died Monday in Alameda, California. He was 86.
His son Ian confirmed the death in an Instagram post Tuesday, calling his father “almost always the smartest, funniest person in whatever room he was in.” A celebration of life is planned for November — fittingly, on a Friday the 13th. No cause of death has been released.
Miller wrote the 1980 slasher on assignment from producer Sean Cunningham’s company for a budget under $650,000. The film grossed more than $59 million worldwide and launched a franchise that spans twelve movies. Miller drew directly from John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” released two years earlier, choosing an isolated summer camp because it stranded teenagers beyond the reach of adults. He built the screenplay’s twist ending around a grieving mother rather than a masked killer, then handed sequel writers the character who would eclipse her: her son, Jason.
Miller spent decades fighting to reclaim ownership of that script. In 2016 he filed termination notices under a 1976 copyright provision letting authors reclaim rights 35 years after signing them away. Horror Inc., the company that had acquired the franchise, argued Miller wrote the screenplay as an employee under a union contract, which would have barred any termination. A federal judge disagreed in 2018, ruling Miller worked as an independent contractor and rightfully held authorship. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in 2021, and Horror Inc. abandoned its final appeal weeks later, closing a legal fight that stretched across five years.
Kerry Fleming, who co-wrote 2017’s “Rock, Paper, Scissors” with Miller, described him to TheWrap as a mentor whose contribution to horror reached well past one script, adding that the ownership battle “weighed on him” personally.
Beyond horror, Miller built a long soap opera career, earning three Daytime Emmy Awards for his writing on “All My Children” and contributing to “General Hospital,” “One Life to Live,” “Another World” and “Guiding Light.”
He is survived by his wife, Tina Thurston Miller, sons Ian and Josh, and a grandson. Peacock’s “Crystal Lake,” a prequel series built on the world Miller created, premieres October 15.
