Michael Crichton

Dr. John Michael Crichton (born October 23, 1942, pronounced {{IPA|}})) is an author, film producer and television producer. His best-known works are science fiction novels, films and television programs. His genre can be best described as techno-thriller which is usually the marriage of action and technical details. Many of his novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background.

Biography

Michael Crichton was born to John Henderson Crichton and Zula Miller Crichton and raised in Roslyn, Long Island, USA. He attended Harvard University, where he graduated summa cum laude in anthropology. He went on to teach anthropology at Cambridge in England, later returning to Massachusetts to gain an M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School.

Related Topics:
Roslyn - Long Island - USA - Harvard University - Summa cum laude - Anthropology - Cambridge - M.D. - Harvard Medical School

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Crichton has admitted to once plagiarizing a work by George Orwell and submitting it as his own. The paper was received by his professor with a mark of "B-". Crichton admitted to plagiarizing when he was on the stand in the course of a lawsuit trying to defend the authenticity of Twister, a movie which one individual claimed was based on their story entitled "Catch the Wind". Crichton has stated that the plagiarism was not intended to defraud the school, but rather as an experiment. Crichton believed that the professor in question had been intentionally giving him abnormally low marks, and so as an experiment Crichton informed another professor of his idea and submitted Orwell's paper as his own.

Related Topics:
Plagiarizing - George Orwell - Twister

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While in medical school, he wrote novels under the pen names John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson (under which pseudonym A Case of Need won the 1969 Edgar Award). He also co-authored Dealing with his younger brother Douglas Crichton under a shared pen name Michael Douglas. The back cover of that book contains a picture of Michael and Douglas at a very young age taken by their mother.

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His two pen names were both created to reflect his above-average height. According to his own words, he was about 206 cm (6'9") tall in 1997 http://www.adara-interactive.com/crichton/ow_transcripts2.htm. "Lange" (adverb) means "for a long time" in German and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous seventeenth century dwarf in Queen Henrietta Maria's court.

Related Topics:
Adverb - German - Jeffrey Hudson - Seventeenth century - Dwarf - Henrietta Maria

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Crichton has two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a brother, Douglas. He is married to Sherri Alexander and has a daughter, Taylor, with ex-wife Anne-Marie Martin.

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