Sci-Fi Giant Michael Crichton Dies at 66 | The Underwire from Wired.com
Sci-Fi Giant Michael Crichton Dies at 66
Popular sci-fi author Michael Crichton died Tuesday of cancer. He was 66 and was battling the illness privately, according to his family.
Crichton was author of several blockbuster novels, including The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, and also created the hit TV series ER.
"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," his family said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
Crichton's 1971 Andromeda Strain tapped into a nation's fascination with space travel in the heady days of the Apollo program with the terrifying possibility that a virus would be returned to Earth, mysteriously killing nearly everyone — except a baby and old man with an ulcer — in a remote New Mexico town.
But it was with Jurassic Park and his collaboration with Steven Spielberg 20 years later that Crichton hit the big time with another tale of science taunted and gone awry with potentially catastrophic effects.
Photo: Jim Cooper/AP