Oscar winning writer of 'Dances With Wolves' novel dies

Michael Blake, the writer whose novel 'Dances With Wolves' became a major hit movie and earned him an Academy Award for the screenplay, has died.Blake, 69, died Saturday in Tucson, Arizona, after a long battle with cancer, his business partner, Daniel Ostroff, said.Blake, who wrote several novels, is best known for 'Dances With Wolves,' which he wrote while broke at the urging of his longtime friend, the actor Kevin Costner.The novel was fairly unsuccessful, but it became a film after Costner asked Blake to adapt it into a movie. The book went on to sell 3.5 million copies after the success of the movie.'Dances With Wolves,' a Civil War epic about Army lieutenant who befriends a Native American tribe, won seven Academy Awards, including one for Blake for best adapted screenplay.