Sidney Sheldon died this week at the age of 89. A multi-talented author, he won the Tony, Oscar, and Emmy awards in his career.
He began his career in the 1940's, writing screenplays for about two dozen movies, including Easter Parade, The Barkleys of Broadway, Annie Get Your Gun, and 1947 movie The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
He also had 6 plays produced on Broadway, and at one point had 3 of them running simlutaneously. He won the Tony Award for his 1959 play, The Redhead.
He then moved on to writing and producing television series. His most famous were the Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, and Hart to Hart.
His first novel was published in 1970. The Naked Face won the Edgar Award for best first mystery novel of that year. He followed this up with best sellers such as The Other Side of Midnight (1974), A Stranger in the Mirror (1976), If Tomorrow Comes (1985), and Are You Afraid of the Dark (2004). Some of his books were also made into television mini-series and movies, including Rage of Angels, Memories of Midnight, and The Sands of Time.
The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Sheldon as the most-translated writer in the world, with his novels having sold over 300 million copies in 180 countries, in 51 languages. The Somerset County Library System has all of his novels, as well as his memoir, The Other Side of Me, and many of the movies he wrote. You can also learn more about him at his website.
