Victor Miller, the screenwriter behind the original Friday the 13th, has died at the age of 86.
His son, Ian Miller, confirmed to Variety that the writer died Monday in Alameda, California. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Ian also paid tribute to his father on Instagram, remembering him as “almost always the smartest, funniest person in whatever room he was in.”
A celebration of Miller’s life is planned for November — fittingly, on Friday the 13th.
Miller wrote the screenplay for the 1980 horror classic Friday the 13th, directed by Sean S. Cunningham.
The movie became a massive hit and launched one of the most recognizable horror franchises in movie history, eventually producing numerous sequels centered around masked killer Jason Voorhees.
Miller previously explained that the idea for Friday the 13th was heavily influenced by John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher classic Halloween.
In an interview with a Friday the 13th fan site, Miller said he wanted the story to take place somewhere young people would be isolated from adults who might be able to help them.
“The idea for the summer camp came from my instinct that we needed a location where young adults would be cut off from all adult help, the basic idea in Halloween,” he said.
Although Friday the 13th became his most famous work, Miller also built a successful career in television.
He wrote for General Hospital and was part of the writing team behind All My Children.
His work on the long-running soap opera earned him three Daytime Emmy Awards for outstanding drama series writing.
Miller leaves behind a lasting legacy in both horror movies and daytime television, but for generations of fans, his name will always be connected to the summer camp nightmare that helped define the slasher genre.