Michael Crichton (1942 - 2008)

Michael Crichton is mostly famous as the author of Jurassic Park (1990) and its sequel The Lost World (1995), which were adapted into high grossing movies. He is also the creator of the TV series ER.

He was born in Chicago and raised in Long Island, New York. He studied at Harvard and began writing fiction with a pen name during medical school. He writes mostly science fiction, medical fiction and thriller books. His plots often portray scientific advancements going awry, commonly resulting in worst-case scenarios. He has written more than twenty works of fiction and many screenplays. Among his most famous novels there are the interational best-sellers Congo (1980) and The Rising Sun (1992). In 1994 Micheal Crichton created the TV series ER, even though he only wrote the first three episodes of the first season (back when George Clooney was playing doctor Ross!). Film director Steven Spielberg, who had also directed the adaptation of Jurassic Park, was the producer of the series.

PS: I never knew that the surname was pronounced /craiton/! I used to prounce Crichton like Krypton...