DeclinetoState
02-13-2006, 12:13 AM
Mon Feb 13, 2006 6:56 AM GMThttp://i.today.reuters.co.uk/images/spacer.gif
By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Peter Benchley, author of the best-seller "Jaws" that was the basis for the blockbuster movie that terrified beachgoers and kept many out of the water for years, died at his home at age 65, his family said on Sunday.
Benchley, well-known for other water-based suspense fiction including "The Deep" and "The Island," which also spawned films, died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, his son-in-law Chris Turner told Reuters.
Benchley was diagnosed with the condition last autumn and his health had been diminishing, but his death at this time had not been expected, according to Turner.
"It was peaceful," he said, adding that the writer's wife Wendy and other family members were by his side at their Princeton, New Jersey home.
In addition to the fame he achieved as a novelist, Benchley was a reporter for the Washington Post and Newsweek, wrote for magazines and a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1967 until January, 1969.
Reuters (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-13T065617Z_01_N12190648_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BENCHLEY.xml&archived=False)
I once saw him on TV. He was very tall.
By Chris Michaud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Peter Benchley, author of the best-seller "Jaws" that was the basis for the blockbuster movie that terrified beachgoers and kept many out of the water for years, died at his home at age 65, his family said on Sunday.
Benchley, well-known for other water-based suspense fiction including "The Deep" and "The Island," which also spawned films, died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, his son-in-law Chris Turner told Reuters.
Benchley was diagnosed with the condition last autumn and his health had been diminishing, but his death at this time had not been expected, according to Turner.
"It was peaceful," he said, adding that the writer's wife Wendy and other family members were by his side at their Princeton, New Jersey home.
In addition to the fame he achieved as a novelist, Benchley was a reporter for the Washington Post and Newsweek, wrote for magazines and a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1967 until January, 1969.
Reuters (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-13T065617Z_01_N12190648_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BENCHLEY.xml&archived=False)
I once saw him on TV. He was very tall.