Robert E. Thompson, 79; Co-Author of Screen Version of ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’

Robert E. Thompson, co-author of the screen adaptation of Horace McCoy’s novel, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1969, has died. He was 79.

Thompson died of pneumonia Feb. 11 in Santa Monica, according to his family.

“They Shoot Horses,” which Thompson wrote with James Poe, was directed by Sydney Pollack and starred Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin as contestants trying desperately to win a Depression-era dance marathon.

Thompson’s 1974 television movie “A Case of Rape,” which starred Elizabeth Montgomery and dealt sensitively with what had previously been a taboo subject on TV, was nominated for an Emmy.

For more than a decade, it held NBC’s ratings record for a made-for-TV movie.

It also helped call attention to the questioning of rape victims about their sexual history, a practice that was later curbed in California.

Among Thompson’s other writing credits was “Hearts of the West,” a charming 1975 film that starred Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith and Blythe Danner, and many television movies, including ones concerning Lee Harvey Oswald and U2 spy Francis Gary Powers.

A native of Los Angeles, Thompson served in the Army in the Pacific and Europe during World War II and graduated from Yale University. He began his writing career in the mid-1950s for live television dramas. During the 1960s, he was associate producer of the television series “Rawhide.”

Thompson is survived by his wife, Joanna; a daughter, Stacia; and a grandson. Donations can be made in his name to the PEN American Center or to the library of Columbia College Hollywood.