Following completion of his master's degree in 1954, he joined the United States Air Force and served in the Psychological Warfare Division where he attained the rank of first lieutenant.

The film also earned Blatty a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as producer.īorn and raised in New York City, Blatty received his bachelor's degree in English from Georgetown University in 1950, and his master's degree in English literature from the George Washington University. Blatty won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Exorcist, and was nominated for Best Picture as its producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel, The Exorcist, and for his 1973 screenplay for the film adaptation of the same name. John Paul II's 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic universities.William Peter Blatty (Janu– January 12, 2017) was an American writer, director and producer. The writer voiced gratitude for his education, but lamented 'that Georgetown University today almost seems to take pride in insulting the Church and offending the faithful.' The Father King Society website listed various ways it believed the university failed to comply with Ex corde Ecclesiae, St. King, a former theology professor at Georgetown who was rumored to be the inspiration for the priestly character in The Exorcist. He formed the Father King Society, a group named for the late Jesuit Fr. In May 2012, he announced a canonical lawsuit against Georgetown for failing to live up to its Catholic identity. However, he became a leading critic of the school. He received its John Carroll Medal for alumni achievement. In 2000 he prevailed upon his friend, the film's director William Friedkin, to release a special director's cut of the film that made the triumph of good over evil more explicit, the New York Times reports.īlatty graduated from Georgetown University in 1950, and parts of the campus were used to film The Exorcist. Blatty voiced concern that the film's climax, in which the younger priest goads the demon into possessing him and then jumps to his death, appeared to give victory to the demon.

The exorcist william