- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDonald Bengtsson Hamilton
- Born in Sweden, the son of a Swedish count (who renounced his title when he emigrated to the U.S.) Donald Hamilton graduated from the University of Chicago and served in the Navy during the second World War. He has published 27 novels in the Matt Helm Series, from 1960-1992, as well as several other novels and magazine articles. Hamilton lived aboard his motor-yacht, the "Kathleen", in the waters of Connecticut, for a number of years before finally returning to his native Sweden. Once there he bought and lived about a surplus patrol boat, which he christened the 'Maagen' or 'Seagull' (in Danish,) until sustaining a fall that required his being placed in a nursing home, where he died in his sleep on November 20, 2006.
One of the last truly "American" suspense series writers, his Matt Helm series, translated to the screen for Columbia Pictures, starring Dean Martin, ranks up there with John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, as the quintessential American anti-hero.
Hamilton was working on the manuscript of the 28th Matt Helm novel at the time of his death, tentatively titled "The Dominators." Visitors to the UCLA library can find an early draft of this work there among his papers.
- IMDb mini biography by: Rob Hudon <morgan@intranet.ca>
- SpouseKathleen Hamilton(1941 - 1990) (her death, 4 children)
- Wrote 27 Matt Helm espionage thrillers.
- Was twice nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America: in 1977 for his novel "The Retaliators" and in 1978 for "The Terrorizers.".
- Wrote a 28th Matt Helm novel, tentatively titled "The Dominators." At the time of Hamilton's death in 2006 the book had yet to be published, and the manuscript itself may reside with Hamilton's other papers in the special collections department at UCLA.
- Lived for most of his life in Sante Fe, New Mexico. In the last last decade of his life he returned to his native Sweden (which he had left as a child), where he lived in the care of his son and his son's family.
- His short story "The Guns of William Longley" won the Western Writers of America's Spur Award as best Western short story of the year.
- [on his character Matt Helm] He's a nice guy, he just happens to kill people for a living.
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