Michael McEachern McDowell (June 1, 1950 – December 27, 1999) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He was described by Stephen King as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today." His best-known work is the screenplay for the Tim Burton film Beetlejuice. Description above from the Wikipedia article Michael McDowell (author), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.