World Lost Love Story Author, Erich Segal

Love Story author Erich Segal has died from a heart attack at home in London aged 72.

Photo: World Lost Love Story Author, Erich Segal

Segal was a classics professor at Yale University when he wrote the book, which became an Oscar-winning 1970 film starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw.

Francesca Segal said her father, who died on Sunday, had suffered from Parkinson's disease for many years.

New York-born Segal also wrote the screenplay for the Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine.

At his funeral in London on Tuesday, Ms Segal said during the eulogy: "That he fought to breathe, fought to live, every second of the last 30 years of illness with such mind-blowing obduracy, is a testament to the core of who he was, a blind obsessionality that saw him pursue his teaching, his writing, his running and my mother, with just the same tenacity.

Love Story, which had the tagline "Love means never having to say you're sorry", was nominated for seven Oscars - including Segal's screenplay - and won one for best original score.

Segal, who was an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is survived by his wife Karen James and daughters Francesca, 29, and Miranda, 20.
BBC News has contributed to the report.