Jurassic Park author Crichton dies at 66
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Author Michael Crichton died unexpectedly, his family said. (Getty Images: Kevin Winter, file photo)
Bestselling US author Michael Crichton, who wrote such novels as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park and created the popular TV drama ER, has died unexpectedly at age 66.
Crichton, a medical doctor-turned-novelist and filmmaker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died on Tuesday (local time) in Los Angeles after what his family described as a "courageous and private battle against cancer".
"Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park," filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who directed the blockbuster movie version of that novel and its sequel, The Lost World, said in a statement.
"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.
'Great storyteller'
Born in Chicago on October 23, 1942, Crichton wrote his first novels under pen names while attending Harvard Medical School. He was awarded his medical degree in 1969, the same year his first major bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published.
Most of his action-based books reflected his medical training, including Andromeda - a techno-thriller about scientists battling a killer microorganism accidentally brought back to Earth by a satellite.
Andromeda also was the first novel by Crichton to be made into a Hollywood film.
He followed that success with The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery and Congo.
But Crichton eclipsed those novels with Jurassic Park and The Lost World, which became two of the top-grossing films of the 1990s. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Jurassic Park and for the 1996 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 in the statement.
"He did this with a wry sense of humour that those who were privileged to know him personally will never forget."
- Reuters
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