Obituary | Writer was close to Hemingway

Denne Bart Petitclerc, a Washington state native whose fan letter in the 1950s led to a close friendship with Ernest Hemingway, has died. He was 76.

Mr. Petitclerc, a former journalist who wrote the screenplay for Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream" (1977) and who created the television series "Then Came Bronson" in the 1960s, died Feb. 3 at the UCLA Medical Center of lung-cancer complications, said his wife, Wanda.

"He was a master at translating, keeping the essence of Hemingway's attitudes and ideas but framing them into lines that an actor could speak on the screen," said Peter Bart, editor-in-chief of Variety and a producer of "Islands in the Stream."

As a young reporter at The Miami Herald, Mr. Petitclerc became incensed over a review that claimed the only contribution that Hemingway had made to the English language was a short sentence.

He wrote Hemingway in Cuba to tell him that wasn't true and to thank him for his inadvertent creative-writing instruction. The self-taught Mr. Petitclerc had studied the craft by copying Hemingway's novels long-hand.

When Hemingway called the newsroom a week later, Mr. Petitclerc thought it was a practical joke. Hemingway invited him to go fishing. Not until Mr. Petitclerc spotted the legend at the airport the next morning was he certain that Hemingway was the caller.

On one of their many fishing trips, Hemingway alluded to an unfinished book that he thought would make a great movie — "Islands in the Stream," published nine years after his death in 1961. Hemingway's widow, Mary, asked Mr. Petitclerc to adapt the novel, Wanda Petitclerc said.

While working at the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Petitclerc wrote his first script, for "Bonanza," at a neighbor's urging and soon was working for the series.

"Then Came Bronson" (1969-70), created for NBC, was about a motorcycle-riding ex-reporter searching for the meaning of life. He also helped launch "The High Chaparral" (1967-71).

"He was a very tough guy but a very warm person," said Bart, a longtime friend. "He was in some ways the consummate Hemingway character who loved adventure."

Mr. Petitclerc was born May 15, 1929, in Montesano, Grays Harbor County, to Edmund Petitclerc and the former Grace Myers.

His father took him at age 5 to The Bon Marché in Seattle, ostensibly to see the angel atop the store's Christmas tree. His father told him to watch the angel and said he would be right back. He never returned.

Abandoned with two children, Mr. Petitclerc's mother placed him and his older sister in an orphanage in San Jose, Calif.

As a screenwriter, he was drawn to stories with a strong father-son bond "because he had no idea what that was like," his wife said.

He moved in with a foster family at about 13 and worked in San Jose's oil fields after dropping out of school around ninth grade.

At 21, he became a Korean War correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Petitclerc bounced between the Chronicle and The Miami Herald, covering the Cuban Revolution for both.

He wrote several novels, including "Rage of Honor" (1966), "Le Mans 24" (1971) and "Destinies" (1981). In addition to writing several TV movies, Mr. Petitclerc wrote the screenplay for the 1972 film "Red Sun" with Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune.

Mr. Petitclerc's final screenplay, "Papa," now in preproduction, was based on his life. It tells the story of a young journalist searching for a father figure against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution. He finds him in Hemingway.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Petitclerc is survived by their son, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren as well as three daughters and a son from a previous marriage.