Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007)

Born in Chicago on February 11, 1917, Sidney Sheldon entered Northwestern University on a scholarship in 1935, but was soon forced to drop out due to the Depression. He went to Manhattan in hopes of becoming a songwriter, but decided to try the west coast where he was hired as a script reader by Universal Studios. He had managed to break into screenwriting on a modest basis when World War II broke out. After he was discharged from the Air Force for medical reasons, he began to write musicals and comedies for the New York stage. At the age of 25, he had three musicals playing on Broadway-- Merry Widow, Jackpot, and Dream with Music. He went on to win a Tony Award for the musical Redhead. Sheldon eventually returned to Hollywood and spent 12 years as a successful screenwriter at both MGM Studios and Paramount Pictures. His acclaim as a screenwriter was capped by the Oscar he won for the screenplay of The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (1947). He wrote 25 films during his lifetime including Jumbo and Anything Goes. He won a Screen Writers Guild Award for best musical of the year for Easter Parade in 1948 and for Annie Get Your Gun in 1950. He also wrote and produced several successful television series, including The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, and Hart to Hart. One of the world's best-selling writers, Sheldon decided to try writing a novel when he got an idea that he could not adapt to a play or a screenplay. His first novel, The Naked Face, won an Edgar for the best mystery novel of 1970. He wrote numerous novels during his lifetime including The Other Side of Midnight, Bloodline, Rage of Angels, If Tomorrow Comes, Windmills of the Gods, and Tell Me Your Dreams. He died on January 30, 2007. His title Sidney Sheldon's Angel of the Dark made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from If Tomorrow Comes… (more)