Obituaries : Calder Willingham; Writer of Novels and Screenplays

NEW HAMPTON, N.H. — Calder Willingham, a novelist and screenwriter who burst onto the literary scene with the novel “End as a Man” and earned Oscar nominations for screenplays for “The Graduate” and “Little Big Man,” has died at 72.

Willingham, who lived in New Hampton, died Sunday of lung cancer at a hospital in Laconia, relatives said.

A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Willingham wrote some of Hollywood’s best-known screenplays. His credits include “Paths of Glory,” “The Vikings,” “One-Eyed Jacks,” “Rambling Rose” and “The Strange One,” which was based on “End as a Man.” He also collaborated on “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

Tom Willingham, the writer’s son, said his father had continued to write, recently completing a script called “Julie’s Valley” for Steven Spielberg.

In 1947, at age 24, novelist Willingham received wide critical acclaim for his first book, “End as a Man,” a dark novel about students at a military college.

The book led to obscenity charges against the publisher for its description of sadistic behavior. The charges were eventually dropped.

Willingham came to speak ruefully about his early success. “Success is always dangerous, and early success is deadly,” he said in 1953.

“I don’t like fame. I don’t like success,” he told the Concord Monitor in 1991. “Fame has no front teeth and a lot of saliva.”

His novels “Providence Island” and “Eternal Fire” followed “End as a Man” onto the New York Times best-seller list. His other novels included “Geraldine Bradshaw,” “Reach to the Stars,” “To Eat a Peach,” “Natural Child” and “The Gates of Hell.”

Willingham was born in Atlanta and grew up in Rome, Ga. After studying at the Citadel and the University of Virginia, he migrated to New York City in 1943, where he moved in the same circles as Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal.

He left New York City for New Hampshire in 1953.

“He was one of those people we have back in the woods we don’t know about,” said one of his friends, state Cultural Affairs Commissioner Van McLeod. “He came here to get away from Hollywood, to get away from the hype, to come to some place that’s real.”

Survivors include his wife of 41 years, Jane Bennett Willingham, four sons and two daughters.