| 100% | MERLE | 5 | French novelist Robert ___, upon whose work the 1973 thriller "The Day of the Dolphin" is based |
| 35% | REFERRAL | 8 | The Michael Cohen raids of April 2018 were based upon this from special counsel Robert Mueller to the US District Court for the SDNY |
| 35% | NICHELLENICHOLS | 15 | Actress whose work with NASA is the focus of the documentary “Woman in Motion” |
| 34% | RUMI | 4 | Poet whose work was set to music by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson in the chamber opera “Monsters of Grace” |
| 34% | RODIN | 5 | Auguste —, French sculptor whose works include 1889's The Burghers of Calais |
| 34% | DAVID | 5 | Jacques-Louis —, French artist whose works include 1787's The Death of Socrates |
| 33% | OED | 3 | Ref. work whose 2018 Word of the Year is "toxic" |
| 33% | DAVINCICODE | 11 | "The ___," 2006 thriller film based on Dan Brown's novel of the same name whose music was composed by Hans Zimmer (birthday today): 3 wds. |
| 33% | YAVIN | 5 | Planet whose fourth moon is the site of the main rebel base in Star Wars, 1977 |
| 32% | VICTOR | 6 | __ Hugo, French novelist whose work is set in Paris |
| 32% | IGUANODON | 9 | One of the dinosaurs upon which Godzilla is based |
| 32% | HISTORIAN | 9 | Scholar whose work is a thing of the past? |
| 31% | SAND | 4 | French novelist George ___ (pen name) whose volume of work includes novels like "Indiana" and "Valentine" |
| 31% | MARYORR | 7 | Writer of the story upon which "All About Eve" is based |
| 31% | DOISNEAU | 8 | Robert —, French photographer whose works include 1950's Kiss by the Hotel de Ville |
| 31% | NATO | 4 | Grp. whose initials in French are the reverse of its English initials |
| 31% | BACON | 5 | Francis —, painter whose works include 1944's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion |
| 31% | STAG | 4 | Animal whose skull is the subject of Georgia O'Keeffe's "Summer Days" |
| 30% | ERTE | 4 | Artist whose name is the French pronunciation of "RT" |
| 30% | SPENGLER | 8 | Oswald —, German philosopher whose two-volume work The Decline of the West was published in 1918 and 1923 |
| 30% | DENIS | 5 | Maurice —, French painter of the group Les Nabis whose works include Orpheus and Eurydice |
| 30% | JULES | 5 | With 141-Down, author whose work is the basis of this puzzle's theme |
| 30% | STATE | 5 | "Enemy of the ___," 1998 American action thriller film starring Will Smith as Robert Clayton Dean |
| 30% | PINKFLOYD | 9 | Rock band whose "The Dark Side of the Moon" album was released in 1973 (2 wds.) |
| 29% | ERIN | 4 | "___ Brockovich," courtroom drama starring Julia Roberts that was based on the true story of an activist |
| 29% | BONIFACE | 8 | Saint —, Anglo-Saxon missionary known as the Apostle of Germany whose feast day is June 5th |
| 29% | MARCELPROUST | 12 | French novelist whose work "In Search of Lost Time" holds a Guinness World Record for longest novel: 2 wds. |
| 29% | THOMASHARRIS | 12 | Suspense novelist whose book was the basis for the movie "The Silence of the Lambs": 2 wds. |
| 29% | EEL | 3 | Long fish whose back is part of the race route, in Mario Kart 8’s Dolphin Shoals |