Charles Willeford
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Charles Ray Willeford III (January 2, 1919 – March 27, 1988) was an American writer. An author of fiction, poetry, autobiography, and literary criticism, Willeford is best known for his series of novels featuring hardboiled detective Hoke Moseley. Willeford published steadily from the 1940s, but vaulted to wider attention with the first Hoke Moseley book, Miami Blues (1984), which is considered one of its era's most influential works of crime fiction. Film adaptations have been made of four of Willeford's novels: Cockfighter, Miami Blues, The Woman Chaser, and The Burnt Orange Heresy.
Four of Willeford's books have been adapted for the screen: Cockfighter (1974; starring Warren Oates and directed by Monte Hellman), for which Willeford wrote the screenplay; Miami Blues (1990; starring Alec Baldwin and directed by George Armitage, also featuring Fred Ward as Hoke Mosley); The Woman Chaser (1999; starring Patrick Warburton and directed by Robinson Devor); and The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019; starring Claes Bang and directed by Giuseppe Capotondi). Willeford adapted his first novel, High Priest of California, into a play. A 1988 production in New York City at The Vortex Theatre apparently represents its first full staging. A subsequent production was staged in 2003.
