Michael Crichton

Overview

Born
October 23, 1942 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Died
November 4, 2008 · Los Angeles, California, USA (lymphatic cancer)
Birth name
John Michael Crichton
Height
6′ 9″ (2.06 m)

Mini bio

Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Roslyn, New York. His father was a journalist and encouraged him to write and to type. Michael gave up studying English at Harvard University, having become disillusioned with the teaching standards--the final straw came when he submitted an essay by George Orwell that was given a "B-." After giving up English and spending a year in Europe, Michael returned to Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Havard Medical School to train as a doctor. Several times, he was persuaded not to quit the course but did so after qualifying in 1969.

During his medical-student days, he wrote novels secretly mainly under the pseudonym of John Lange in reference to his almost 6ft 9 height. (Lange in German means long) One novel, "A Case of Need," written under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson, (Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th century dwarf) contained references to people at Harvard Medical School, but he couldn't hide his identity when the novel won an award that had to be collected in person. After giving up medicine, Michael moved to Hollywood, California, in the early 1970s and began directing movies based on his books, his first big break being Westworld (1973).
- IMDb mini biography by: Rob Hartill

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
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Trademark

Cautionary tales about the dangers of technology
Tells the story through multiple characters' viewpoints
Towering height and slender frame
Often expresses complex scientific terminology and theories in more layman's terms
Known for doing exhaustive research

Trivia

He has related the story of his first visit to a movie studio, Universal, which was about to produce The Andromeda Strain (1971). A young novice director named Steven Spielberg was assigned the task of giving him a tour of the studio. It was almost 20 years later that he was contacted by Spielberg for a potential project that was dropped in favor of another of his stories, Jurassic Park (1993).
After the success of Jurassic Park (1993), Rising Sun (1993), Disclosure (1994) and Congo (1995) (all adaptations of Crichton's novels), he was paid a substantial amount for the movie rights of his future bestseller Airframe before it was even published. Sigourney Weaver, Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore were reportedly linked to the project. However, the movie adaptation was permanently shelved when Crichton could not agree on a screenplay that he liked, after which he returned the money.
Was tied up and robbed at gunpoint by masked men in his home in Santa Monica, California, on 23 September 2002. No one was harmed.
ER (1994) began its life in the early 1970s as E.W.: Emergency Ward, which was what they were called at the time, and was a full-length film script. He was unable to get it produced. Steven Spielberg contacted him about it in 1989, expressing interest in turning it into a movie. It was dropped when Spielberg heard about Jurassic Park (1993). During the film's production, someone else at Amblin Entertainment read it and suggested that it was better suited for a television series.
When writing a script or book, he always eats the same thing for lunch to aid his concentration. When writing Jurassic Park (1993), for example, he ate egg salad sandwiches with lots of pepper.

Quotes

[First line of his autobiography] It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw."
I went to a museum and they had this sideshow. There was a little boy who couldn't have been more than six. His feet didn't even touch the ground. Each time they showed a dinosaur he would shout, "Tyrannosaurus!" "Stegosaurus!". He did that for an hour and I thought, "What is it about dinosaurs that's so fascinating?" That's when I decided to write "Jurassic Park".
In the information society, nobody thinks. We expect to banish paper, but we actually banish thought.
We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.
I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.