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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
 Posted - 11/05/2008 : 1:44:30 PM
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Jurassic Park Author Loses Cancer Battle
Bestselling Jurassic Park author and filmmaker Michael Crichton has lost his battle with cancer in Los Angeles. He was 66.
Crichton, who also wrote sex thriller Disclosure and co-created hit TV series ER, was 66.
In a statement, the author's representative says, "While the world knew him as a great story teller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us, and entertained us all while doing so, Michael Crichton was 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.
"He did this with a wry sense of humour that those who were privileged to know him personally will never forget."
A family insider tells website MomLogic.com, "Michael's family respectfully asks for privacy during this difficult time."
Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Roslyn, New York, the son of a journalist who encouraged his writing passion.
He quit studying English at Harvard University to travel through Europe and then returned to Massachusetts to study medicine at Harvard Medical School.
His early novels were written under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson.
Crichton gave up medicine in the early 1970s and moved to California, where he began directing movies based on his books.
His big break came with 1973 cult movie Westworld.
He almost became an actor in the mid-1970s when director Nicolas Roeg called on him to play the alien David Bowie eventually portrayed in The Man Who Fell to Earth. To date, his only acting role came in 1971's The Andromeda Strain, in which he played an uncredited surgeon.
The author/director starred in his own real-life drama in 2002 when he was tied up and robbed at gunpoint by masked men in his Santa Monica, California home.
Married five times, Crichton leaves behind one child, Taylor.
His bestselling novels and hit screenplays also include Twister, Congo, The First Great Train Robbery and all the Jurassic Park sequels.
As a filmmaker, he directed the movies The 13th Warrior, Physical Evidence, Runaway and The First Great Train Robbery, among others.
Source: http://www.imdb.com/news/ns0000002/#ni0598768
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Edited by - Neville on 11/05/2008 4:00:09 PM
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niccolom
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Canada
118 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2008 : 4:46:25 PM
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| Only 66. So young. We will miss him. |
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Gristle McThornbody
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Germany
186 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2008 : 09:22:12 AM
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Although I never found him to be a great author, I was almost always entertained and sometimes even educated by his books.
RIP, big guy.
"Hi, I'm Bob Evil!" |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2008 : 11:17:20 AM
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I did like his greatest hits, but after "The lost world" there's a notorious drop in quality in his output. And "State of fear" and "Next" are just plain embarrasing.
Still, at his best he was able to blend thriller and scientific divulgation like nobody else in the best-seller market, and he also helmed in his time several good movies, like "The great train robbery" and "Westworld". |
Edited by - Neville on 11/06/2008 11:46:01 AM |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 04:25:24 AM
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In Jurassic Park, Crichton has all kinds of sidebars into statistics randomness and chaos theory to create the foreshadowing that something is very wrong ont he island with the dinosaurs. He explains this all in a very entertaining way and the movie loses a lot by giving these sidebars such short shrift. The problem is that he could not create people. His characters are basically charactitures or interchangeable.
rossM |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2008 : 4:02:42 PM
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Having read most of his books, I often got the impression that Crichton was a misanthropist, that he had difficulties finding other people interesting or appealling, and that that extended to his own characters. Thruth is, they're not ver likeable, not even the heroes. In Jurassic Park, both movie and book, Ian Malcolm is so obnoxious I ended up hating him no matter he was right or wrong about his theories. And the best that I can say of Dr. Grant and Ellie Sadler is that they're not as annoying as the rest of the characters. Even in the movie they're rather bland, despite being played by competent actors.
This is far less noticeable in the novels Chrichton wrote using the first person narrative, I'm actually surprised he didn't choose that literary device more often, like he did in Rising Sun. |
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