NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Donald E. Westlake, a prize-winning author and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, has died in Mexico, apparently of a heart attack, his wife said. He was 75.
Westlake, who won three Edgar awards for his novels and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1991 for the screenplay for "The Grifters," died Wednesday night as he prepared to go to dinner, his wife, Abigail Westlake, told The New York Times.
Westlake was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of American in 1993.
Beginning with "The Mercenaries" in 1960, he wrote more than 100 books -- often writing under the pen names Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Samuel Holt and Edwin West.
One reason West wrote under so many pseudonyms is that he was so prolific -- sometimes writing four books a year -- he published under multiple names to minimize doubts that he could have single-handedly been so productive, the newspaper said.
"In the beginning, people didn't want to publish more than one book a year by the same author," Westlake's publisher, Susan Richman, said.
The 1999 Mel Gibson movie "Payback" was based on a Westlake novel, and he wrote the screenplay for the 1987 thriller "The Stepfather." The 1972 Robert Redford action comedy, "The Hot Rock," was based on one of Westlake's series of crime novels featuring one of his most popular characters, the small-time criminal John Dortmunder.
Born July 12, 1833, in New York, Westlake attended several colleges but did not graduate.
In addition to his third wife, Abigail Westlake, whom he married in 1979, Westlake is survived by four sons from a previous marriage, two stepdaughters and a stepson, as well as a sister and four grandchildren.
