Best-selling US author Michael Crichton, who wrote such novels as ‘The Andromeda Strain’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ and created the popular TV drama ‘ER,’ has died unexpectedly at age 66, his family said in a statement.
Crichton, a medical doctor turned novelist and filmmaker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died yesterday in Los Angeles after what his family described as a ‘courageous and private battle against cancer’.
‘Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park,'’ Steven Spielberg, who directed the blockbuster movie version of that novel and its sequel, ‘The Lost World,’ said in a statement.
‘He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth.’
The family statement, which was released through a publicist, called Crichton's death ‘unexpected’ but released few other details about his passing and requested privacy.
Most of his action-based books reflected his medical training, including ‘The Andromeda Strain,’ a techno-thriller about scientists battling a killer microorganism accidentally brought back to Earth by a satellite.
Crichton won a number of writing and film awards and an Emmy for his work on ‘ER’.
