Jason loses his creator: Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller dies at 86

Victor Miller, the screenwriter who conceived Jason Voorhees for “Friday the 13th,” has died at 86. His son Ian Miller confirmed the death on Sept. 1, saying the writer died Aug. 31 in Alameda, California. The family did not disclose the cause.

Miller’s work helped establish the slasher foundations of the “Friday the 13th” franchise from its 1980 debut. He imagined Jason as a child who drowned at Crystal Lake, creating the motive for his mother Pamela’s revenge.

Jason was not the main killer in the first film. The character became the masked villain familiar to audiences in later installments, including the hockey-mask appearance introduced in “Friday the 13th Part III” in 1982.

Miller also wrote for film and television and won three Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on American soap operas. In 2021, a federal appeals court ruled in his favor in a long-running dispute over the copyright to the original screenplay.

He later served as an executive producer on “Crystal Lake,” a television series focused on the character’s youth. Miller’s family plans to hold a memorial on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026, as the industry considers the franchise’s future.