Soap Opera Actress’ Ex-Husband Found Dead: Officials ID William Hasley in Canyon Incident

William Hasley, an author and screenwriter, was identified as the California hiker who was found dead on Saturday near Runyon Canyon in Los Angeles. He was 78.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner confirmed his identity but did not release a cause of death, which is pending additional investigation.

Hasley, who co-wrote Finding the Champion Within with Caitlyn Jenner and was previously married to The Bold and the Beautiful actress Robin Riker, was found near Runyon Canyon at approximately 7:05 p.m. on June 6, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. More than two dozen personnel with the LAFD responded to a report of a hiker in grave condition, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A helicopter was used to reach the patient and allow emergency crews to provide urgent medical care, but they were unable to save him.

Hasley’s book with Jenner was a self-help book that described Jenner’s athletic accomplishments and aimed to use a 10-step program to “reboot” the reader’s life. Hasley said he and Jenner became “fast friends” while he worked on an Olympics-related project before the champion runner commissioned him to write the book.

He hailed from Pittsburgh and played university football before embarking on a Hollywood career as a writer. He wrote on 37 episodes of The Smurfs in the late 1980s and early ’90s as well as several episodes of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

Hasley’s screenwriter television credits include Swift Justice, Ghost Stories, Murder, She Wrote, Kung Fu, Young Riders and Highway to Heaven. He also wrote screenplays for Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox.

The Times reports that he also enjoyed golfing, horseback riding, fighting City Hall over an environment issue, volunteering in soup kitchens and speaking to youth organizations.

He shared his passion for writing with students at UCLA and described the process of writing as akin to assembling a puzzle, where one tries many different combinations of pieces before finding the perfect fit, according to his teaching biography.

“I personally believe that when you know your characters well enough they will start dictating their actions,” he wrote. “When that happens writing becomes a euphoric experience.”

He reportedly lived in the Hollywood Hills not far from where he suffered the medical emergency. A neighbor told the New York Post they had seen him earlier Saturday carrying groceries home. “It’s very sad he had to die all alone like that,” the neighbor said.