{"id":856813,"date":"2026-06-10T05:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/856813\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T05:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:45:14","slug":"william-hasley-dead-hollywood-writer-friend-of-caitlyn-jenner-died-hiking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/856813\/","title":{"rendered":"William Hasley dead: Hollywood writer, friend of Caitlyn Jenner died hiking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Authorities have identified the hiker who suffered a fatal medical emergency in Runyon Canyon<\/a> as 78-year-old screenwriter William Hasley.<\/p>\n

Hasley was a veteran TV writer who taught screenwriting classes at UCLA Extension<\/a>. He was also a friend of Caitlyn Jenner and helped write the former athlete\u2019s motivational book \u201cFinding the Champion Within,\u201d according to his biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The L.A. County medical examiner released Hasley\u2019s identity<\/a> Tuesday but had yet to rule on his cause of death.<\/p>\n

More than two dozen personnel with the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a report of a hiker in grave medical condition off Nichols Canyon Road near Hollywood Boulevard shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday. <\/p>\n

A helicopter was used to reach the patient and allow paramedics to provide urgent medical care. They were unable to save him, and he was declared dead shortly after, according to the LAFD.<\/p>\n

Hasley hailed from Pittsburgh and played university football before venturing to Hollywood to pursue his dreams as a writer. He wrote on 37 episodes of \u201cThe Smurfs\u201d in the late 1980s and early \u201990s as well as several episodes of \u201cFat Albert and the Cosby Kids,\u201d according to IMDB. His TV writing credits also included \u201cSwift Justice,\u201d \u201cGhost Stories,\u201d \u201cMurder, She Wrote,\u201d \u201cYoung Riders\u201d and \u201cHighway to Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was able to channel his love of sports while working with NBC on the network\u2019s project \u201cStar Salute to the U.S. Olympic Team,\u201d where he met Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, according to his professional biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pair became friends, and Hasley went on to help write a book about Jenner\u2019s philosophy on overcoming adversity in sports and life. He was commissioned to ghostwrite several other motivational books including \u201cPassion, Profit, & Power\u201d for hypnotist Marshall Sylver and \u201cThe Slight Edge\u201d for self-help expert Jeff Olson. <\/p>\n

Hasley loved sharing his passion for writing with students at UCLA and described the process of writing as akin to assembling a puzzle, where one tries many different combinations of pieces before finding the perfect fit, according to his teaching biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally believe that when you know your characters well enough they will start dictating their actions,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWhen that happens writing becomes a euphoric experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to teaching and writing, he enjoyed golfing, horseback riding, fighting City Hall over an environmental issue, volunteering in soup kitchens and speaking to youth organizations, according to his bio. <\/p>\n

Hasley was formerly married to actor Robin Riker<\/a>, best known for her roles on \u201cBrothers\u201d and \u201cThe Bold and the Beautiful.\u201d <\/p>\n

He lived in the Hollywood Hills not far from where he suffered the medical emergency. A neighbor told the New York Post<\/a> they had seen him earlier Saturday carrying groceries home. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad he had to die all alone like that,\u201d the neighbor said.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Sonja Sharp contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities have identified the hiker who suffered a fatal medical emergency in Runyon Canyon as 78-year-old screenwriter William…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":856814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[30273,185,171,3404,349702,1532,349696,35201,129895,349698,40750,349701,1926,349700,349699,67,132,68,349697,5558],"class_list":["post-856813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-caitlyn-jenner","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-episode","tag-fatal-medical-emergency","tag-friend","tag-hasley","tag-hiker","tag-hollywood-boulevard","tag-motivational-book","tag-passion","tag-runyon-canyon-idd","tag-sport","tag-teaching-biography","tag-ucla-extension","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-william-hasley","tag-writing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116724232859305332","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}