Best-selling US author Michael Crichton, who wrote such novels as The Andromeda Strainand Jurassic Parkand created the popular TV drama ER, has died unexpectedly at the age of 66, his family said yesterday.
Crichton, a medical doctor turned novelist and film-maker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles after what his family described as a "courageous and private battle against cancer".
"Michael's talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park," said Steven Spielberg, who directed the blockbuster movie version of that novel and its sequel, The Lost World. "He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place."
The family statement, which was released through a publicist, called Crichton's death "unexpected" but released few other details about his passing and requested privacy.
Born in Chicago on October 23rd, 1942, Crichton wrote his first novels under pen names while attending Harvard Medical School. He was awarded his medical degree in 1969, the year his first major bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published.
Like much of his work, this book reflected his medical training, being a techno-thriller about scientists battling a killer micro-organism accidentally brought back to Earth by a satellite.
Andromeda was also the first novel by Crichton to be made into a Hollywood film. He followed that success with The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robberyand Congo. But he eclipsed those novels with Jurassic Parkand The Lost World, two of the top-grossing films of the 1990s.
He also co-wrote the screenplay for Jurassic Parkand for 1996 tornado thriller Twister. Crichton won a number of writing and film awards and an Emmy for his work on ER, the popular and long-running NBC television hospital drama currently in its final season.
"While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us - and entertained us all while doing so - his wife, Sherri, daughter, Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes," his family said. - (Reuters)