Sidney Sheldon, one of the best selling authors, died on Tuesday afternoon at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. He was 89 years of age. His death was caused by some complications from pneumonia. Sheldon was married to Jorja Curtright Sheldon, a stage and film actress for more than 30 years. She died in 1985. He remarried Alexandra Kostoff in 1989. He is survived by his wife, Alexandra and daughter, author Mary Sheldon.
Sidney Sheldon was born on February 11, 1917. He was born in Chicago, Illinois to a Jewish couple. He took to writing at an early age. At the small age of 10, he sold one of his poems for $10. During the Depression, he did various jobs. He also went to Northwestern University. At 17, he decided to go for Hollywood. But the only job he found was of a reader at the Universal Studios for $22 a week. His career took a turn in 1937.
During World War II, he served as a pilot in the War Training service, a branch of the Army Air Corps. After the war, he began writing musicals for the Broadway stage but also concluded writing screenplays for both MGM Studios and Paramount Pictures. Within sometime, he was established as a creative writer. Over the years, Sheldon wrote for television, film and stage. He won an ‘Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay‘ in 1947 for ‘The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer‘, a ‘Tony Award‘ in 1959 as one of the writers of the musical ‘Redhead‘. He also earned an ‘Emmy‘ nomination for his work on ‘I Dream of Jeannie‘. During the ending years of ‘I Dream of Jeannie,’ he decided to take to novel writing. He was of around 50 years of age at that time. ‘’The Naked Face‘’, which reportedly sold 3.1 millions, was the result. It earned him the ‘Best First Novel Edgar Allan Poe Award‘ from the Mystery Writers of America. His next novel, ‘The Other Side of Midnight‘, was number one on the New York Times bestseller list. A number of his novels were also made into motion pictures.
Sheldon’s books had a great degree of suspense which made the readers read the whole of the novel in one go. And, he was definitely an author, greatly read by women all over the world. The reason to this lies in the fact, that he projected women as talented, powerful and their femininity as their powerful device. His women always have a certain mysterious charm to them. They always gained victory in this bad and dirty world. His plots were sensual as well as cleverly plotted. Each chapter left the reader on an edge, forcing him to turn the pages and go on and on and on. The list of his novel includes:-
• The Naked Face (1970)
• The Other Side of Midnight (1973)
• A Stranger in the Mirror (1976)
• Bloodline (1977)
• Rage of Angels (1980)
• Master of the Game (1982)
• If Tomorrow Comes (1985)
• Windmills of the Gods (1987)
• The Sands of Time (1988)
• Memories of Midnight (1990)
• The Doomsday Conspiracy (1991)
• The Stars Shine Down(1992)
• Nothing Lasts Forever1994)
• Morning, Noon and Night (1995)
• The Best Laid Plans1997)
• Tell Me Your Dreams (1998)
• The Sky is Falling (2001)
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2004)
• The Other Side Of Me(2005)
