Victor Miller, the screenwriter who helped create the wildly popular Friday the 13th horror franchise that continues to this day, has died.
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Miller’s son Ian shared the news of his father’s death on Instagram last night (Sept. 1).
“Yesterday my father, Victor Miller, went to his final reward,” Ian wrote alongside several candid snapshots of his father. “He was almost always the smartest, funniest person in whatever room he was in. [My Father] inspired in me, and many others, a love of photography, music, and storytelling.”
“He is survived by his wife, two sons, and his grandson. He had a helluva run and will be missed dearly,” Ian continued.
In a hat tip to his father’s legacy, Ian added that Miller’s family “will hold a celebration of life in November — on Friday the 13th, of course.”
Miller’s son didn’t share a cause of death.
Born in New Orleans in 1940, Miller cut his teeth as a screenwriter in the 1970s. Per IMDb, He co-wrote the 1978 family-friendly comedy Manny’s Orphans. He penned the Bad News Bears-inspired comedy Here Come the Tigers that same year. Both films were also directed by frequent collaborator Sean S. Cunningham.
Victor Miller Pens His Signature Screenplay with Friday the 13th
However, it was a 1980 horror film inspired by the success of 1978’s Halloween that cemented both Victor Miller’s and Sean S. Cunningham’s cinematic legacy. With Friday the 13th, Miller and Cunningham created a franchise that inspired dozens of fright flicks set at camp, with teen counsellors as victims of an unstoppable killer.
Miller’s screenplay also established characters (of course, the killing machine Jason Voorhees and his beloved mother, Pamela) that would go on to appear in several sequels, video games, novels, comic books, and an upcoming TV series.
Miller and Cunningham collaborated again in the 1982 thriller A Stranger Is Watching.
Miller’s other screenwriting credits also include Getting In (1994), Jury Duty (1995), Rock, Paper, Scissors (2017), The Once and Future Smash (2022).
Meanwhile, Miller was a prolific soap opera writer. He worked as a breakdown writer on Guiding Light from 1986 to 1997. He also served as Associate Head Writer on One Life to Live, All My Children, Guiding Light, Another World, and General Hospital.
Meanwhile, Crystal Lake, an upcoming Friday the 13th prequel series, is set to debut on the streamer Peacock on Oct. 15.
Victor Miller was 86.