Victor Miller Dies: ‘Friday The 13th’ Screenwriter Was 86

Victor Miller, the screenwriter behind Friday the 13th, has died. He was 86.

Miller’s son Ian confirmed his father had died on Monday, August 30, but didn’t reveal the cause of death.

“Yesterday my father, Victor Miller, went to his final reward,” read the Instagram post in honor of the screenwriter. “He was almost always the smartest, funniest person in whatever room he was in. He inspired in me, and many others, a love of photography, music, and storytelling.”

The post continued, “He is survived by his wife, two sons, and his grandson. He had a helluva run and will be missed dearly.”

Ian said that a celebration of Miller’s life will be held in November, “on Friday the 13th, of course.”

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.

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.