Michael Blake was born on July 5, 1945 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He wrote Dances With Wolves in 1988 and at Kevin Costner's request adapted his novel into the screenplay that became the 1990 film, winning seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Internationally acclaimed for his humanitarian work on behalf of Native Americans and America's wild horses, Blake's sequel to Dances With Wolves, The Holy Road, was published in 2001 and he was working on a third installment when he died in 2015.