Obituaries : Mason Wiley; Wrote on Oscars
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Mason Wiley, co-author of one of the definitive works on the Academy Awards, has died in New York City.
Gilbert Cole, his longtime companion, said that Wiley was 39 when he died from the complications of AIDS on Oct. 7. Wiley had been seriously ill for about two years.
With fellow Columbia University classmate Damien Bona, Wiley in 1986 wrote a year-by-year account of the fantasies and foibles of the Oscar presentations. The writing and research had taken them more than four years.
Titled “Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards,” the book--published by Ballantine--has sold tens of thousands of copies. A fourth, updated edition was published in 1993.
Wiley also was a critic for such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Time and others.
In addition to Cole, Wiley is survived by his parents, Robert and Margaret Wiley of Rocky Mount, N.C., and two sisters.
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