Toronto Star (26/Sep/1994) - Author of Psycho Robert Bloch dies

Details

• article: Author of Psycho Robert Bloch dies
• newspaper: Toronto Star (26/Sep/1994)
• keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Perkins, Chicago, Illinois, Norman Bates, Psycho (1960), Robert Bloch

Article

Author of Psycho Robert Bloch dies

Robert Bloch, a prolific pulp-fiction author and screenwriter best known for the book on which the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror movie Psycho was based, has died. He was 77.

Bloch died late Friday at his Los Angeles home after a long battle with cancer, a family spokesman said Saturday.

Bloch wrote fantasies, mysteries and humor, but he gained his greatest fame from his novels of psychological suspense that inspired such writers as Stephen King.

Born in Chicago, he fell under the spell of legendary science-fiction and horror writer H.P. Lovecraft at an early age. Bloch read everything Lovecraft wrote, corresponded with him and received encouragement in his own writing.

Bloch based his novel Psycho on a real-life multiple murderer in Wisconsin. Hitchcock adapted the novel into his best-known film, a black comedy starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, an insane innkeeper. It inspired three sequels and a television movie.