Michael Crichton

Author and screenwriter Michael Crichton died of cancer yesterday, according to a statement from his family being reported by various news sources today.

Crichton paid his way through Harvard med school by penning pulp novels under pseudonyms in the 1960s, before using his own name and concentrating on writing full-time.

The topics Crichton took on in his suspenseful and often scientific thrillers, naturally lent themselves to film adaptations, and he contributed much to the movies. His first break in Hollywood was the 1971 adaptation of his Andromeda Strain (which was also remade as a television miniseries this past year).

Crichton co-wrote the film adaptation of perhaps his own best known work, Jurassic Park, as well as the natural disaster thriller Twister. Prior to that, he had written and directed the classic science fiction movies Westworld and the film adaptation of Robin Cook's Coma. In the mid 1990s he turned a medical drama movie he was working on, at the advice of friend Steven Spielberg, into a television series, and it became ER (the two hour pilot episode was essentially his original film screenplay).

By the time of his death, most of Crichton's novels found their way to the big screen as well, notably Congo, Sphere, Disclosure and The 13th Warrior, although he always commented that he never wrote his novels with the film versions in mind -- a point made by the film version of The Lost World which differed considerably from the novel in seemingly every aspect except the title.

Medically trained, Crichton was very science minded, and science and medicine featured heavily in most of his works. He has been described as "the only writer to use footnotes in fiction" and "not science fiction, but science eventuality." His strong scientific views occasionally brought him controversy, most famously his denial of global warming. He was a board member of The Dinosaur Society, an organization that raises funds for paleontological research and education. Crichton had a dinosaur, crichtonsaurus, named after him.

I was a fan of Crichton. Not only did I relate to his growing up as an outsider, and found influence in his writing subjects and style, I discovered pure entertainment and escapism in his novels and the movies he helped bring to life. His influence will be missed.