Michael Crichton, author of bestselling science fiction adventures, including Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain, died of cancer in Los Angeles, aged 66, his family said on Wednesday.
“Michael Crichton died unexpectedly in Los Angeles Tuesday, November 4, 2008, after a courageous and private battle against cancer,” a statement posted on the author’s Web site said.
Crichton wrote numerous blockbusters, some of which sold more than 100 million copies and were translated into 30 languages. He also created the international hit television hospital drama series E.R., which was screened around the world.
The Andromeda Strain, which catapulted Crichton to Hollywood fame after it was published in 1969, told the story of US scientists battling an alien virus that lands in New Mexico from outer space and drives humans to bizarre and grisly deaths.
In Jurassic Park, made into a blockbuster 1993 movie, Crichton’s human characters were chased around by rampaging dinosaurs brought to life by scientists.
“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,” the family statement said.
His “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,” it said.
“Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand,” it said. “He leaves behind the greatest gifts of a thirst for knowledge, the desire to understand, and the wisdom to use our minds to better our world.”
The family appealed for privacy and said no details of the writer’s funeral would be released.
Crichton was born in October 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied anthropology at Harvard and also taught at Cambridge University in England before spending time in Europe and North Africa.
He then returned to the US to train as a doctor, writing thrillers to pay his school fees.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Nauru said it would hold a referendum to change its official name, described as a colonial relic from a time when “foreign tongues” mangled the native language. Nauru would change its name to Naoero to “more faithfully honor our nation’s heritage, our language and our identity,” Nauruan President David Adeang said in a statement on Tuesday. The Pacific island nation’s native language is Dorerin Naoero, which is spoken by the vast majority of its approximately 10,000 inhabitants. “Nauru emerged because Naoero could not be properly pronounced by foreign tongues, and was changed not by our choice, but for convenience,” the government said in
RSS