Larry McMurtry, award-winning Lonesome Dove and Brokeback Mountain writer, dies at 84

Larry McMurtry
(Image credit: AP Photo/LM Otero)

Award-winning novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry has died at 84.

The author's death was confirmed on Friday to The New York Times by a spokesperson for his family, although a cause of death was not specified.

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"He wrote about the Texas he knew from his own life, and then the old West as he heard it through the stories of his grandfather's — on his grandfather's porch," Obama said at the time. "And in Lonesome Dove, the story of two ex-Texas Rangers in the 19th century, readers found out something essential about their own souls, even if they'd never been out West or been on a ranch."

Through his work, McMurty "demythologized the American West with his unromantic depictions of life on the 19th-century frontier and in contemporary small-town Texas," the Times also wrote.

Stephen King on Friday remembered McMurtry as a "great storyteller," adding that he both "learned from" and "was entertained by" him, while Terms of Endearment director James L. Brooks praised him as "among the best writers ever."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.