Michael Crichton

Michael Crichton was an American author, filmmaker and television producer, born in 1942 and active until his death in 2008, whose science driven thrillers and screen work made him one of the most commercially successful storytellers in American media of the late twentieth century. Trained as a physician before turning to writing full time, Crichton wrote bestselling novels including The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park and Congo, many of which combined meticulous research into science and technology with fast paced suspense plotting. He also worked directly in film and television, writing and directing the 1973 science fiction film Westworld, and in 1994 he created the medical drama series ER for NBC, which became one of the most watched dramas in American television history and ran for fifteen seasons. Crichton's ability to move between the novel, screenwriting and television production, while consistently returning to themes of technology outrunning human control, made him a defining figure in how American popular media treated science and medicine during his lifetime.