If you have a moment, please say a prayer for author William Peter Blatty and his family.

William Peter Blatty, the novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter most famous for landmark horror film The Exorcist as well as the director of two films, The Ninth Configuration and The Exorcist III, has died. He was 89.

Exorcist director William Friedkin announced the news on Twitter Friday morning: “William Peter Blatty, dear friend and brother who created The Exorcist passed away yesterday,” Friedkin wrote.

Blatty did some work in recent years to attempt to make Georgetown return to Catholicism.

He will be missed.