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Michael Crichton...


Photo Credit Jonathan Exley - USA Today

Michael Crichton was a writer and filmmaker, best known as the author of Jurassic Park and the creator of ER. His latest posthumous novel, MICRO, was released on November 22, 2011.

Crichton graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College, received his MD from Harvard Medical School, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, researching public policy with Jacob Bronowski. He taught courses in anthropology at Cambridge University and writing at MIT. Crichton’s 2004 bestseller, State of Fear, acknowledged the world was growing warmer, but challenged extreme anthropogenic warming scenarios. He predicted future warming at 0.8 degrees C. (His conclusions have been widely misstated.)

Crichton’s interest in computer modeling went back forty years. His multiple-discriminant analysis of Egyptian crania, carried out on an IBM 7090 computer at Harvard, was published in the Papers of the Peabody Museum in 1966. His technical publications included a study of host factors in pituitary chromophobe adenoma, in Metabolism, and an essay on medical obfuscation in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Crichton’s first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published while he was still a medical student. He later worked full time on film and writing. One of the most popular writers in the world, he has sold over 200 million books. His books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and thirteen have been made into films.

He had a lifelong interest in computers. His feature film Westworld was the first to employ computer-generated special effects back in 1973. Crichton’s pioneering use of computer programs for film production earned him a Technical Achievement Academy Award in 1995.

Crichton won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer’s Guild of America Award for ER. In 2002, a newly discovered ankylosaur was named for him: Crichtonsaurus bohlini. He is survived by his wife Sherri, his daughter Taylor and his son, John Michael.

CRICHTON, (John) Michael. American. Born in Chicago, Illinois, October 23, 1942. Died in Los Angeles, November 4, 2008. Educated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, A.B. (summa cum laude) 1964 (Phi Beta Kappa). Henry Russell Shaw Travelling Fellow, 1964-65. Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University, England, 1965. Graduated Harvard Medical School, M.D. 1969; post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, La Jolla, California 1969-1970. Visiting Writer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988.

Awards: Recipient of Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award, 1968 (“A Case of Need”, written under pseudonym Jeffery Hudson); and 1980 (“The Great Train Robbery”). Association of American Medical Writers Award, 1970 (“Five Patients”); Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Achievement Award, 1995 (“for pioneering computerized motion picture budgeting and scheduling”); George Foster Peabody Award (for “ER”); Writer’s Guild of America Award, Best Long Form Television Script of 1995 (for “ER”) Emmy, Best Dramatic Series, 1996 (for “ER”). Ankylosaur named Crichtonsaurus bohlini, 2002.

Associations: Member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Author’s Guild, Writers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, P.E.N. America Center, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa. Board of Directors, International Design Conference at Aspen, 1985-91; Board of Trustees, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, La Jolla, 1986-91. Board of Overseers, Harvard University, 1990-96. Board of Directors, Drug Strategies, 1994-, Author’s Guild Council, 1995-, Board of Directors, Gorilla Foundation, 2002-, Board of Trustees, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006-

References: Contemporary Authors, 1971-; Who’s Who in America, 1974-; Current Biography, April 1976; Film Encyclopedia, 1979-; International Motion Picture Almanac, 1996; International Television & Video Almanac, 1996.

Works

Novels

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, Knopf, 1969

THE TERMINAL MAN, Knopf, 1972

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, Knopf, 1975

EATERS OF THE DEAD, Knopf, 1976

CONGO, Knopf, 1980

SPHERE, Knopf, 1987

JURASSIC PARK, Knopf, 1990

RISING SUN, Knopf, 1992

DISCLOSURE, Knopf, 1994

THE LOST WORLD, Knopf, 1995

AIRFRAME, Knopf, 1996

TIMELINE, Knopf, 1999

PREY, Harper Collins, 2002

STATE OF FEAR, Harper Collins, 2004

NEXT, Harper Collins, 2006

PIRATE LATITUDES, Harper Collins, 2009

MICRO, Harper Collins, 2011

DRAGON TEETH, Harper Collins, 2017

Non-Fiction

FIVE PATIENTS: The Hospital Explained, Knopf, 1970

JASPER JOHNS, Abrams, 1977

ELECTRONIC LIFE, Knopf, 1983

TRAVELS, Knopf, 1988

JASPER JOHNS (revised edition), Abrams, 1994

Under Pseudonym:

ODDS ON by John Lange, 1966

SCRATCH ONE by John Lange, 1967

EASY GO by John Lange, 1968

A CASE OF NEED by Jeffery Hudson, 1968

THE VENOM BUSINESS by John Lange, 1969

ZERO COOL by John Lange, 1969

DEALING: OR THE BERKLEY TO BOSTON FORTY-BRICK LOST BAG BLUES by Michael Douglas, 1970

DRUG OF CHOICE by John Lange, 1970

GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange, 1970

BINARY by John Lange, 1972

A CASE OF NEED Reissued by Michael Crichton, 1993

Published Screenplays

WESTWORLD, Bantam Books, 1975

TWISTER (with Anne-Marie Martin), Ballantine Books, 1996

Films

PURSUIT, ABC Movie of the Week, 1972. (Director)

WESTWORLD, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1973. (Writer/Director)

COMA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1978. (Writer/Director)

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, United Artists, 1979. (Writer/Director)

LOOKER, The Ladd Company, 1981. (Writer/Director)

RUNAWAY, Tri-Star Pictures, 1984. (Writer/Director)

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE, Columbia Pictures, 1989. (Director)

JURASSIC PARK, Universal, 1993 (Co-writer)

RISING SUN, Twentieth Century Fox, 1993 (Co-writer)

DISCLOSURE, Warner Brothers, 1994 (Co-producer)

TWISTER, Warner Brothers/Universal, 1996 (Co-writer, Co-producer)

SPHERE, Warner Brothers, 1998 (Co-producer)

13TH WARRIOR, Touchstone, 1999 (Co-producer)

Other Films From Crichton’s Books

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, Universal, 1971

THE CAREY TREATMENT, MGM, 1972

DEALING: OR THE BERKLEY TO BOST0N FORTY-BRICK LOST BAG BLUES, Warner Bros, 1972

THE TERMINAL MAN, Warner Bros, 1974

CONGO, Paramount, 1995

LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK II, Universal, 1997

JURASSIC PARK III, Universal, 2001

TIMELINE, Paramount, 2003

JURASSIC WORLD, Universal, 2015

Television

ER, NBC, 1994 Creator, (co-exec. producer)

THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, Syfy, 2008

WESTWORLD, HBO, 2015

Computer Games

AMAZON, Tellarium, 1982

TIMELINE, Eidos, 2000

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