Prolific British novelist Frederick Forsyth, best known for 1971’s The Day of the Jackal, which was adapted for the screen in 1973 and again in 2024, has died. He was 86.
Forsyth died at home Monday after a brief illness, his literary agent, Jonathan Lloyd, confirmed. He was surrounded by his family at he time of his death.
“We mourn the passing of one of the world’s greatest thriller writers,” Lloyd said in a statement, per The Times. “Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life — In My Own Words, to be released later this year on BBC1 — and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived.”
Born August 25, 1938, in Ashford, Kent, England, Forsyth served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force before becoming a journalist. He was hired by Reuters in 1961 before moving over to the BBC in 1965, where he worked as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.
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