Michael Blake (author)

Michael Blake
Blake speaking in Washington, 2007.
Born	(1945-07-05)July 5, 1945 Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Died	May 2, 2015(2015-05-02) (aged 69) Tucson, Arizona
Occupation	Author, screenwriter

Michael Lennox Blake (July 5, 1945 – May 2, 2015) was an American author, best known for the film adaptation of his novel Dances with Wolves.

Early in his life, Blake's family lived in Texas, before moving to Southern California, where they moved frequently. He began writing when he was stationed at Walker Air Force Base, when he wrote for the base newspaper. He studied journalism at the University of New Mexico, and later studied at a film school, in Berkeley, California. He also attended Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. In the late 1970s he moved to Los Angeles; during the 1980s only one of his screenplays was produced, called Stacy’s Knights. The movie starred Kevin Costner, who later encouraged him to continue to write, and introduced him to key figures in the Hollywood Industry. Dances with Wolves was the result, Kevin Costner then asked him to write a screenplay for the film based on the novel. He went on to do humanitarian work, and continued to write.

Michael Blake has three brothers, James A. Webb, David Webb and Dan Webb, former principal of John Muir High School in Pasadena, California.

He died on May 2, 2015, after a long illness in Tucson, Arizona.