On Monday, Peter O’Donnell passed away. He had just celebrated his ninetieth birthday a week before.
Of course, he’s best known for creating the noir character Modesty Blaise, collaborating with artist Jim Holdaway, whose strip ran for almost forty years. In 2001, O’Donnell retired the character and left specific instructions that no other writer handle the character. Especially on film.
Films were made of the character, with the most famous being the loose adaptation with Monica Vitti and Terrence Stamp.
O’Donnell also wrote a number of adventure novels under the name nom de plume, “Madeleine Brent”.