Sidney Sheldon Dies at 89

“I try to write my books so the reader can’t put them down,” Sheldon explained in a 1982 interview. “I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It’s the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: Leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter.”

Sidney Sheldon, who enjoyed very successful careers in cinema, theatre, and later television before turning to fiction and becoming a spectacularly popular novelist, died in Los Angeles following complications from pneumonia. He was 89.

Sheldon, who was born in Chicago in 1917, wrote and sold his first written work at age 10. He won the Academy Award for best original screenplay of 1947 for “The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer“, staring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple. His other screenwriting hits included Easter Parade, Annie Get Your Gun, Jumbo and Anything Goes.

With the advent of TV he hit big with “I Dream of Jeannie”, which he created, produced and wrote. The show ran between 1965 and 1970.

It was at this stage, aged 50, that Sheldon turned his hand to another new challenge: writing books. “During the last year of I Dream of Jeannie, I decided to try a novel,” he said in 1982. “Each morning from nine until noon, I had a secretary at the studio take all calls. I mean every single call. I wrote each morning - or rather, dictated - and then I faced the TV business.”

The result was The Naked Face, which was scorned by book reviewers but went on to sell some 3.1 million copies. Other Sheldon’s novels - including Rage of Angels, The Other Side of Midnight, Master of the Game and If Tomorrow Comes - reached bestseller status.

His first wife, Joria Curtright Sheldon, died in 1985. He is survived by his second wife, Alexandra Kostoff, a daughter and two grandchildren.

I confess that about 20 years ago I got hooked on Sheldon’s work. I read many of his novels and found his life as a writer fascinating. His accomplishments always amazed me. He was a gifted story teller and I’ll miss his work.