Sidney
Sheldon
Sidney
Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American
writer. He turned 50 and began writing best-selling novels such as Master
of the Game (1982), The
Other Side of Midnight (1973) and Rage of Angels (1980) that he
became most famous. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood, California, where he
reviewed scripts and collaborated on a number of B movies Sheldon
enlisted in the military during World War II as a pilot in the War
Training Service, a branch of the Army Air Corps, However, his unit was
disbanded before Sheldon could see any action. He then returned to
civilian life and moved to New York where he began writing musicals for
the Broadway stage while continuing to write screenplays for both MGM
Studios and Paramount
Pictures.
In 1969, Sheldon wrote his first novel, The
Naked Face, which earned him a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe
Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best First
Novel. His next novel, The Other Side of Midnight, went to #1 on The
New York Times bestseller list as did several ensuing novels, a number
of which were also made into motion pictures or TV miniseries. His
novels often featured determined women who persevere in a tough world
run by hostile men. The novels contained a lot of suspense and devices
to keep the reader turning the page.
Books were Sheldon's favorite medium. "I love writing books," he
commented. "Movies are a collaborative medium, and everyone is
second-guessing you. When you do a novel you're on your own. It's a
freedom that doesn't exist in any other medium." Sheldon won an Academy
Award for Writing Original Screenplay (1947) for The Bachelor and the
Bobby-Soxer, a Tony Award (1959) for his musical Redhead, and was
nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on I Dream of Jeannie, an NBC
sitcom. Unfortunately the great writer Sheldon died on January 30, 2007
from complications arising from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center
in Rancho Mirage, California. He was cremated. His ashes were interred
in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, but his work lives on
