He was an experimenter and popularizer known for his stories of disaster andsystematic breakdown, such as the rampant microbe of The Andromeda Strain or the dinosaurs running madly in Jurassic Park. Many of his books became major Hollywood movies, including Jurassic Park, Rising Sun and Disclosure. Crichton himself directed and wrote The Great Train Robbery and he co-wrote the script for the blockbuster Twister.
In 1994, he created the award-winning TV hospital series ER. He's even had a dinosaur named for him, Crichton's ankylosaur.
"Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park," said Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg, a friend of Crichton's for 40 years. "He was thegreatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility todinosaurs again walking the Earth.
"Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one inthe wings that will ever take his place," Spielberg said.
John Wells, executive producer of ER called the author "an extraordinary man. Brilliant, funny, erudite, gracious,exceptionally inquisitive and always thoughtful."
In recent years, Crichton was the rare novelist granted a White House meeting withPresident Bush, perhaps because of his skepticism about global warming, which Crichton addressed inthe 2004 novel, State of Fear. Crichton's views were strongly condemned by environmentalists, who allegedthat the author was hurting efforts to pass legislation to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.
If not a literary giant, he was a physical one, standing 6 feet and 9 inches, andready for battle with the press. In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Crichton came witha tape recorder, text books and a pile of graphs and charts as he defended State of Fear and his take on global warming.
A new novel by Crichton had been tentatively scheduled to come next month, butpublisher HarperCollins said the book was postponed indefinitely because of his illness.
One of four siblings, Crichton was born in Chicago and grew up in Roslyn, LongIsland. His father was a journalist and young Michael spent much of his childhood writing extrapapers for teachers. In third grade, he wrote a nine-page play that his father typed for him usingcarbon paper so the other kids would know their parts. He was tall, gangly and awkward, and usedwriting as a way to escape; Mark Twain and Alfred Hitchcock were his role models.
Figuring he would not be able to make a living as writer, and not good enough atbasketball, he decided to become a doctor. He studied anthropology at Harvard College, and latergraduated from Harvard Medical School. During medical school, he turned out books under pseudonyms.(One that the tall author used was Jeffrey Hudson, a 17th-century dwarf in the court of KingCharles II of England.) He had modest success with his writing and decided to pursue it.
His first hit, The Andromeda Strain, was written while he was still in medical school and quickly caughton upon its 1969 release. It was a featured selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and was sold toUniversal in Hollywood for $250,000.
His books seemed designed to provoke debate, whether the theories of quantumphysics in Timeline, the reverse sexual discrimination of Disclosure or the spectre of Japanese eminence in Rising Sun.
Crichton had a rigid work schedule: rising before dawn and writing from about 6a.m. to around 3 p.m., breaking only for lunch. He enjoyed being one of the few novelistsrecognized in public, but he also felt limited by fame.
"Of course, the celebrity is nice. But when I go do research, it's much moredifficult now. The kind of freedom I had 10 years ago is gone," he told the AP. "You have to havegood table manners; you can't have spaghetti hanging out of your mouth at a restaurant."
Crichton was married five times and had one child. A private funeral is planned.
