HOLLYWOOD HILLS—On Saturday, June 6, a man died while hiking in the Hollywood Hills. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office announced on Monday, June 8, that the victim was 78-year-old William Hasley.
He was found by Los Angeles Fire Department Air Operations around 7 p.m. on Runyon Canyon Road, a hiking trail through Runyon Canyon Park, located between Hollywood Boulevard and Mulholland Drive. Rescuers were lowered to him and administered medical treatment, but he died on the trail, at approximately 7:05 p.m. An official cause of death has not yet been determined and is pending further investigation.
Hasley was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and earned a degree from Marshall University in Virginia. His career in Hollywood including writing scripts for animated shows such as “Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids” and “The Smurfs.” He moved into live-action television, contributing episodes to series such as “Highway To Heaven,” “Kung Fu,” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
He worked on the NBC special “Star Salute to the U.S. Olympic Team,” which helped him forge a friendship with Bruce Jenner, who would later become Caitlyn Jenner. Jenner hired Hasley to ghostwrite her book “Finding the Champion Within.” He also served as a screenwriting instructor at the University of California-Los Angeles.
His ex-wife, actress Robin Riker starred in the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” as Beth Logan and Kelly Hall, in the Showtime comedy series “Brothers.”
Hasley’s death is the second death connected to Runyon Canyon Road over the last month. On May 24, Brian Spina, 40, collapsed after a heart attack and died after being airlifted to a nearby hospital.
