John Michael Crichton was an American author, screenwriter, director, and producer who first rose to prominence with his 1969 techno-thriller novel The Andromeda Strain, which became a bestseller and was adapted into a successful film the following year.

He cemented his reputation as a master of scientific suspense with Jurassic Park in 1990, a novel that sold over 10 million copies in its first year and spawned a blockbuster film franchise.

Early Life and Education

John Michael Crichton was born on October 23, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, the elder of two children born to John Henderson Crichton, a chemical engineer, and Zula Miller Crichton, a homemaker.

Tall and slender in adolescence, he graduated from Roslyn High School in 1960 and enrolled at Harvard College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in biological anthropology summa cum laude in 1964 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Awarded a Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellowship, he spent a year lecturing in anthropology at the University of Cambridge before returning to Harvard Medical School to begin an MD program, which he left in 1967 after realizing his true calling was writing.

Personal Life

Michael Crichton was married multiple times before his demise. He first married Joan Radam in 1965; they divorced in 1970. He wed Kathleen St. Johns in 1978 and separated in 1980. His third marriage, to Suzanna Childs in 1981, ended in 1983. In 1987, he married actress Anne-Marie Martin, with whom he had a daughter, Taylor Anne, before divorcing in 2003.

His fifth marriage, to Sherri Alexander in 2005, lasted until he died in 2008; Sherri was pregnant at the time, and their son, John Michael Todd Crichton, was born in February 2009. Crichton was often regarded as a deist, though he never publicly confirmed his precise religious beliefs, and practiced meditation throughout much of his life.

Career

Crichton published his first novel, Odds On, in 1966 under the pseudonym John Lange, followed by The Andromeda Strain in 1969 under his name, which became a New York Times bestseller and launched his career in both literature and film.

He wrote and directed several films in the 1970s—Westworld (1973), Coma (1978), and The Great Train Robbery (1979)—while continuing to publish bestselling novels including The Terminal Man (1972) and Congo (1980).

In the early 1990s, he created and wrote the pilot for the NBC medical drama ER, which aired from 1994 to 2009 and earned multiple awards. His 1990 novel Jurassic Park became a phenomenon, selling millions of copies and spawning a film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg in 1993, followed by a major franchise.

Crichton balanced writing projects with screenwriting credits on Twister (1996) and directing Looker (1981), and continued to explore new genres with works like Timeline (1999) and State of Fear (2004).

Awards

Edgar Award for Best Novel, 1969 – A Case of Need

Seiun Award for Best Translated Long Work, 1971 – The Andromeda Strain

George Foster Peabody Award, 1994 – ER

Academy Technical Achievement Award, 1994

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, 1996 – ER

International Thriller Writers Grand Master Award, 2006

Net Worth

Michael Crichton’s net worth is estimated at $120 million, derived from the sale of over 200 million books worldwide, lucrative film rights and adaptations, and his work as a screenwriter and director.

Death

Crichton passed away on November 4, 2008, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 66.

Controversy

In 2002, Crichton was tied up and robbed at gunpoint in his Santa Monica home; no one was harmed, and the assailants fled with valuables. He faced criticism for his public skepticism of anthropogenic climate change, notably in his 2004 novel State of Fear, which environmental scientists and activists argued misstated climate science.

Filmography

Odds On (1966)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Westworld (1973)

Coma (1978)

The Great Train Robbery (1979)

Looker (1981)

Runaway (1984)

Physical Evidence (1989)

Jurassic Park (film writing, 1993)

Twister (film writing, 1996)

Rising Sun (film writing, 1993)

Disclosure (film writing, 1994)

Sphere (film writing, 1998)

Timeline (film writing, 1999)

Pirate Latitudes (posthumous novel adaptation, 2009)

Dragon Teeth (posthumous novel adaptation, 2017)

Eruption (posthumous novel completion, 2024)

Books

The Andromeda Strain (1969)

The Terminal Man (1972)

The Great Train Robbery (1975)

Eaters of the Dead (1976)

Congo (1980)

Sphere (1987)

Jurassic Park (1990)

Rising Sun (1992)

Disclosure (1994)

The Lost World (1995)

Airframe (1996)

Timeline (1999)

State of Fear (2004)

Micro (posthumous completion, 2011)

Pirate Latitudes (posthumous, 2009)

Dragon Teeth (posthumous, 2017)

The Andromeda Evolution (posthumous, 2019)

Eruption (posthumous completion, 2024)