Michael Crichton, whose technological thrillers like The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park dominated best-seller lists for decades and were translated into Hollywood megahits, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 66 and lived in Santa Monica, Calif ornia. A statement released by his family gave the cause as cancer.A doctor by training — he also created the hit television series ER — Crichton used fiction to explore the moral and political problems posed by modern technology and scientific breakthroughs, which in his books defied human control or ended up as tools used for evil ends. In his fictional worlds, human greed, hubris and the urge to dominate were just as powerful as the most advanced computers. Crichton’s fast-paced narratives often involved the arcana of medical technology, computer science, chaos theory or genetic engineering. But by combining old-fashioned storytelling with up-to-date, gee-whiz science, the books made for a compelling formula that was adapted easily by Hollywood. His books sold in the tens of millions and almost routinely became movies, many of them blockbusters like Jurassic Park and the sequel, The Lost World, as well as Rising Sun.Reviewers complained that Crichton’s characters were wooden, that his ear for dialogue was tin and that his science was suspect. Environmentalists raged against his skeptical views on climate change, first expressed in the 2004 novel, State of Fear, and subsequently in various public forums. Even his severest critics, however, confessed to being seduced by his plots and unable to resist turning the pages, rapidly. “He had a ferocious, brilliant intellect and the ability to write entertaining narratives,” said Lynn Nesbitt, his agent since The Andromeda Strain. John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, the oldest of four children, and grew up in Roslyn, on Long Island. His father was the editor of Advertising Age and later president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. At Harvard, after a professor criticised his writing style, Crichton changed his major from English to anthropology and graduated summa cum laude in 1964. He then spent a year teaching anthropology on a fellowship at Cambridge University. In 1966 he entered Harvard Medical School and began writing on the side.Under the pseudonym John Lange, the German word for tall was a sly reference to his height, 6 feet 7 inches, he wrote eight thrillers. Under the name Jeffery Hudson, he wrote A Case of Need (1968), a medical detective novel. It won an Edgar Award for best novel. In 1969, after earning his medical degree, Crichton moved to the San Diego and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Already inclining toward a writing career, he tilted decisively with The Andromeda Strain, a medical thriller about a group of scientists racing against time to stop the spread of a lethal organism.With a breakneck speed, suspenseful plot that played out against a carefully researched scientific setting, the novel, he was now writing under his own name, became an enormous best seller and a successful film.He then turned his hand to directing, screenwriting and producing for film and television. “He was extraordinarily knowledgeable about art, science and medicine,” Nesbitt said. “He felt he had a responsibility to educate as well as entertain.”
