Patricia Louisianna Knop, a television and film screenwriter best known for co-writing the 1986 drama “9 1/2 Weeks,” died Aug. 7 from undisclosed causes. She was 78.
Knop’s daughter, artist Gillian Lefkowitz, announced the news last week. “RIP to my incredible mother ♥️ magical thinker, treasure seeker, writer, painter, sculpture, dreamer, builder, creator of so many things, lover of life,” Lefkowtiz wrote on Instagram. “You will be missed and beyond. It’s an end of an incredible era.”
Knop’s first credited screenplay was for the 1976 adaptation of “The Passover Plot,” followed by “Lady Oscar,” from director Jacques Demy in 1979. But she was best known for several film and television projects, mainly erotic dramas, that she wrote or co-produced in the 1980s and 1990s while working with her husband, producer Zalman King.
Among these projects were “9 1/2 Weeks,” starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. It was considered too explicit for U.S. distribution in its original cut, and an edited version bombed in the states. Unexpectedly, the unedited version became a major hit internationally and the film ultimately made more than $100 million off its approximately $17 million budget.
Other collaborations with her husband included “Wild Orchid,” “Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue,” “Red Shoe Diaries” and “Delta of Venus.”
Knop and King were married from 1965 until his death in 2012. She is survived by two daughters.