Melissa Mathison

Melissa Mathison
Mathison in 2015
Born	Melissa Marie Mathison[1] (1950-06-03)June 3, 1950 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	November 4, 2015(2015-11-04) (aged 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley
Occupation	Screenwriter
Years active	1979–2015
Spouse	Harrison Ford ​ ​ (m. 1983; div. 2004)​
Children	2

Melissa Marie Mathison (June 3, 1950 – November 4, 2015) was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for the Tibetan independence movement. She was best known for writing the screenplays for the films The Black Stallion (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the latter of which earned her the Saturn Award for Best Writing and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.^[2]

Mathison later wrote The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), based on Lynne Reid Banks's 1980 children's novel of the same name, and Kundun (1997), a biographical-drama film about the Dalai Lama. Her final film credit was The BFG (2016), which marked her third collaboration with film director Steven Spielberg.