Michael Crichton died..

[dfagdfsh]

Best-selling author and filmaker Michael Crichton died unexpectedly in Los Angeles Tuesday, after a courageous and private battle against cancer, according to a statement released by his family. He was 66.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/...n4575403.shtml

That sucks. His last few books have been terrible, but I'll always have a special place in my heart for Jurrasic Park.

 

[humza]

Oh nooo. I loved Jurassic Park.....

 

[Neo_Version 7]

Jurassic Park will never die.

 

[robin]

Just saw that, sad to hear. I had no idea he was in his 60's, nor that he had cancer.

I haven't looked at any of his recent stuff, but I read the Jurassic Park books many times over when I was a kid.

This wikipedia edit gave me a laugh:

Michael Crichton died November 5, 2008, from a rare Andromeda strain of cancer. After what initially appeared to be a hopeful run at remission as a result of the controversial new Carey Treatment, Crichton's timeline ran out. The late author, known by some as "The Terminal Man", opted not to provide the public with full disclosure regarding his illness, but rather to keep it within his personal sphere of close friends and family. He was noted to have kept his zero cool, despite what must have indeed been a state of fear. Crichton was 66 years old. Jurassic Park.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton

 

[FLMountainMan]

His books always started out great and then just went to crap about 2/3 of the way through. That and the whole Global Warming made him not really my cup of tea.

It's sadly amusing that ER outlasted him. Of course, ER will outlast my children and my children's children, but still....

 

[dfagdfsh]

I wonder what his return was per episode of ER. Talk about a goldmine

 

[MetroStyles]

Originally Posted by robin

This wikipedia edit gave me a laugh:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton

That is rather hilarious given the unfortunate circumstances.

 

[emptym]

His autobiographical Travels was very interesting. Starts w/ him at Harvard med school, goes on to him graduating, moving to LA, having a spiritual crisis, going on a spiritual quest that includes seeing auras, spoon bending, etc. Crazy stuff. But made more believable by the fact that he'd been educated very well in Western medicine.

 

[robin]

Originally Posted by emptym

His autobiographical Travels was very interesting. Starts w/ him at Harvard med school, goes on to him graduating, moving to LA, having a spiritual crisis, going on a spiritual quest that includes seeing auras, spoon bending, etc. Crazy stuff. But made more believable by the fact that he'd been educated very well in Western medicine.
I remember reading that awhile back and thought of it this morning when the news broke. His experiences at medical school were humorous.

''It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw,'' Dr. Crichton writes, ''the blade kept snagging the skin.'' His descriptions of the competition between medical students are brutal. ''In the labs, if you asked the person at the next bench a question, he'd tell you the wrong answer in the hope you would make a mistake, or, even better, start a fire.''

 

[Go Surface]

Wow, that's so terribly sad. I remember reading Jurassic Park in fifth grade, and then doing my book report on it dressed up as Dr. Alan Grant. My condolences.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by emptym

His autobiographical Travels was very interesting. Starts w/ him at Harvard med school, goes on to him graduating, moving to LA, having a spiritual crisis, going on a spiritual quest that includes seeing auras, spoon bending, etc. Crazy stuff. But made more believable by the fact that he'd been educated very well in Western medicine.

+1. I am a strong disbeliever in all that kind of stuff. but I ahve to say that the only person who ever made me think twice about it was MC - his background and his detailed discrription of his path gave me reason to reconsider. not good enough reason, but some

 

[Garfieldthecat]

Bummer....I remember reading Andromeda Strain and thinking how cool that science lab was. After that, I read all of his books.

 

[Milhouse]

I really enjoyed his books. Andromeda Strain, Sphere, Congo, Eaters of the Dead, and of course Jurassic Park were all really good. Reading Andromeda Strain at a young age helped push me towards science.

 

[xchen]

Mitchell Crichton was my favorite writer! This is terrible news.

 

[rach2jlc]

He also wrote a lesser-known but interesting monograph about Jasper Johns and was quite a collector of his work. I guess when you sell 5 bajillion copies of your books, you can buy nice artwork.

Anyway, a lot of his earlier work I liked when I was a kid... and 66 is too young for somebody who obviously was a very vivacious figure.

Sad news.