Author Sidney Sheldon Dead At 89
Posted January 31, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He enjoyed huge success as a writer and producer in nearly every medium – stage, film, and television – but probably won his most devoted legion of fans with his best-selling novels. Author Sidney Sheldon is dead at the age of 89.
Sheldon’s books, including “Rage of Angels”, “The Other Side of Midnight” and “Master of the Game” may not have won great critical acclaim, but no one could deny they were page turners, modelled after the Saturday serials, meant to keep the reader hanging at the end of every page and chapter. He often wrote about strong women with power.
“I try to write my books so the reader can’t put them down,” Sheldon said in a 1982 interview. “I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It’s the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter.”
The author died Tuesday afternoon of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. His wife Alexandra Kostoff was at his side. He was married to Jorja Curtright Sheldon for more than 30 years. She died in 1985.
Many of Sheldon’s books were adapted into television miniseries, often produced by the author.
The writer won a Tony for his work on Broadway, including “Redhead”, “Jackpot” and “Dream with Music”; picked up an Oscar for his screenplay for “The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer”, starring Cary Grant and Shirley Temple; and got an Emmy for creating and producing “I Dream of Jeannie”.
But despite his success on the screen and stage, Sheldon said his true love was writing books.
“I love writing books,” he once said. “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.”
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