Bettina Gilois Death | Obituary – Los Angeles based screenwriter and author Bettina Gilois recently passed away from cancer.
Bettina Gilois was a German-American screenwriter and author, known for her work on the HBO film Bessie, and Disney’s Glory Road and McFarland, USA. Gilois won an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Writing of a Television Movie and a Black Reel Awards of 2016 nomination for Bessie.
Bettina Gilois, an award-winning screenwriter and author, has died in her sleep at age 58, according to a friend. She had an advanced form of cancer and passed just days before her July 9 birthday.
Gilois was having what was described by a friend as “a career year” when she passed, with several projects in development at various networks.
Gilois first began working as an assistant to Slava Tsukerman, the director of Liquid Sky, in her native Berlin. She also worked at Andy Warhol’s Factory in New York on the television series Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes.
She subsequently joined Keith Barish and Arnold Kopelson Productions as a development executive, which led to producing credits on Fire Birds, as well as Triple Bogie on a Par Five Hole with Amos Poe.
She was currently writing the series Muscle Shoals with Johnny Depp producing and Nancy Wilson of Heart composing the music. She was also writing the Mahalia Jackson story for Lifetime Television, and A Million Miles Away, the true story of migrant worker to astronaut, Jose Hernandez, for Netflix.
Her book Billion Dollar Painter: The Triumph and Tragedy of Thomas Kinkade Painter of Light was published September 9th, 2014, and is currently being made into a movie. Other books include Mi Vida Loca: The Crazy Life of Johnny Tapia, as well as work on Bleeding Beverly for Simon and Schuster, a story about the first African American principal at Beverly Hills High School. All three book projects have garnered film deals.
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Gilois is a Columbia University graduate in art history. She was currently an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at Chapman University and also taught at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, and Hofstra University.
Survivors include her son, Caliber, and daughter, Shiloh. A memorial will be held, but no details on it were immediately available.
