Victor Miller, the screenwriter behind horror slasher hit which became a franchise Friday the 13th, has died. He was 86.

Miller’s son Ian confirmed his father had died on Monday, August 30 in an instagram post (see below), but didn’t reveal the cause of death.

We interviewed Victor Miller in 2015. Check out our interview here.

Miller wrote the screenplay for the 1980 film directed by Sean S. Cunningham that would go on to spawn multiple sequels. Before the horror film, Miller co-wrote the family comedy Manny’s Orphans (1978) with Steve Miner, which Cunningham also directed. In 1978, worked with Cunningham, writing the sports comedy Here Come the Tigers under the pseudonym Arch McCoy.

The screenwriter would work with Cunningham once again after Friday the 13th on the thriller A Stranger Is Watching (1982). Other film credits include Getting In (1994), Jury Duty (1995), Rock, Paper, Scissors (2017), The Once and Future Smash (2022), and the short film Sweet Revenge (2025), among others.

Miller also wrote for television, becoming an Associate Head Writer on the daytime drama One Life to Live from 1982 to 1984. In 1984, he joined All My Children in the same role and later did the same with Guiding Light, Another World, and General Hospital. He won several Daytime Emmys for his work on All My Children in 1985, 1988, and 1998.

The rights to original Friday the 13th and the charecter Jason Voorhees became the subject of a long-running copyright battle which Miller finally won in 2021, regaining certain rights from franchise owners  Sean Cunningham and Horror Inc.

Miller’s legacy will live on in Crystal Lake, which is the A24 series based on the Friday the 13th franchise and a prequel to the film Miller wrote. The series will premiere on Peacock on October 15.

Horror Month: Interview with Victor Miller 

Victor Miller wins Friday The 13th copyright battle