Oscar-Winner Stanley Shapiro

LOS ANGELES - Oscar-winning screenwriter Stanley Shapiro, whose string of romantic comedies included ``Pillow Talk,'' starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson, has died of leukemia at age 65.

Shapiro died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Dr. Robert Miller, a longtime friend.

The New York City native began his writing career in radio and television. He switched to movies, and turned out a string of hits in the 1950s and '60s.

His flair for light, romantic comedy provided popular starring vehicles for such actors as Cary Grant, David Niven, Marlon Brando, Charles Boyer and Dean Martin.

His screen credits include ``Operation Petticoat,'' ``How to Save a Marriage - and Ruin Your Life,'' ``The Perfect Furlough'' and ``Come September.''

Shapiro also wrote plays, including, ``The Engagement Baby,'' and the novels ``Simon's Soul'' and ``A Time to Remember.''

His Academy Award-winning ``Pillow Talk'' in 1959, in which a couple who dislike each other fall in love over a party line, was the first pairing of Hudson and Day, who went on to make several other hit movies together.

Shapiro's last movie, 1988's ``Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,'' starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin as a pair of con men trying to outdo one another.

He is survived by his daughter, Sesquia.