Zoneboy
01-31-2007, 12:01 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sidney Sheldon, who won awards in three careers - Broadway theater, movies and television - then at age 50 turned to writing best-selling novels about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men, died Tuesday. He was 89.
Sheldon died of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, said Warren Cowan, his publicist.
Several of his novels became television miniseries, often with the author as producer.
At 17, Sheldon decided to try his luck in Hollywood. The only job he could find was as a reader of prospective film material at Universal Studio for $22 a week. At night he wrote his own screenplays and sold one, "South of Panama," to the studio for $250.
During World War II, he served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. In the New York theater after the war he established his reputation as a prolific writer. Broadway success brought about his return to Hollywood.
His first assignment, "The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer," starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, brought him the Academy Award for best original screenplay of 1947.
He produced the popular "The Patty Duke Show" and said he wrote nearly every episode for seven years. He also created and produced "I Dream of Jeannie."
"During the last year of 'I Dream of Jeannie,' I decided to try a novel," he said in 1982. The result was "The Naked Face," which was scorned by book reviewers and sold 21,000 copies in hardcover. The novel found a mass market in paperback, reportedly selling 3.1 million. Thereafter Sheldon became a habitue of best-seller lists, often reigning on top.
Sheldon died of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, said Warren Cowan, his publicist.
Several of his novels became television miniseries, often with the author as producer.
At 17, Sheldon decided to try his luck in Hollywood. The only job he could find was as a reader of prospective film material at Universal Studio for $22 a week. At night he wrote his own screenplays and sold one, "South of Panama," to the studio for $250.
During World War II, he served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. In the New York theater after the war he established his reputation as a prolific writer. Broadway success brought about his return to Hollywood.
His first assignment, "The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer," starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, brought him the Academy Award for best original screenplay of 1947.
He produced the popular "The Patty Duke Show" and said he wrote nearly every episode for seven years. He also created and produced "I Dream of Jeannie."
"During the last year of 'I Dream of Jeannie,' I decided to try a novel," he said in 1982. The result was "The Naked Face," which was scorned by book reviewers and sold 21,000 copies in hardcover. The novel found a mass market in paperback, reportedly selling 3.1 million. Thereafter Sheldon became a habitue of best-seller lists, often reigning on top.