* William R. Scott; Author of Bestseller ‘Onionhead’

William R. Scott, 73, who wrote the bestseller “Onionhead” in the early 1950s under the pen name Weldon Hill. Scott already had had a successful career as an author of short stories and serials under his own name when he penned “Onionhead,” about a University of Oklahoma student who became a reluctant hero. It drew on Scott’s experience in the Coast Guard during World War II. The book was made into a movie starring Andy Griffith. A later novel, “The Long Summer of George Adams,” became a television movie starring James Garner. Scott’s last published novel was “The Iceman,” in 1976. In Norman, Okla., on Saturday after a lengthy illness.