Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer acclaimed for his multifaceted career as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and television creator, blending suspenseful storytelling with commercial success across stage, screen, and page. Born Sidney Schechtel in Chicago to a Jewish family—his father Otto was a salesman and his mother Natalie a homemaker—he displayed early literary talent, selling his first poem at age 10 for $10. After attending Northwestern University and working odd jobs during the Great Depression, Sheldon trained as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II but was medically discharged before deployment.

Sheldon's professional breakthrough came in Hollywood, where he arrived in the late 1930s and penned screenplays for films including Easter Parade (1948) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950), earning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947). Transitioning to Broadway, he co-wrote the book for the musical Redhead (1959), which won a Tony Award for Best Musical. In television, Sheldon created enduring sitcoms such as The Patty Duke Show (1963–1966), I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984), receiving several Emmy nominations over two decades.

In 1969, at age 52, Sheldon pivoted to novels with The Naked Face, launching a prolific output of 18 bestsellers characterized by intricate plots, strong female protagonists, and themes of revenge, romance, and intrigue. Standout titles include The Other Side of Midnight (1973), Rage of Angels (1980), If Tomorrow Comes (1985), Master of the Game (1982), Windmills of the Gods (1987), and The Sands of Time (1988), many of which were adapted into miniseries or films. His books, translated into 51 languages, have sold over 300 million copies, establishing him as one of the most commercially successful fiction writers of the 20th century; he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery Novel in 1980 for Rage of Angels. In 1988, Sheldon was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On a personal level, Sheldon married three times: first to Jane Kaufman (1945–1946), then to actress Jorja Curtright (1951–1985, until her death from a heart attack), with whom he had a daughter, Mary (also a novelist), and finally to philanthropist Alexandra Kostoff in 1989. He resided primarily in California, maintaining homes in Malibu and Palm Springs, and detailed his life in the 2005 memoir The Other Side of Me. Sheldon died of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, just 12 days shy of his 90th birthday.