Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 ’Ŭ January 30, 2007) was a master storyteller and one of the best-selling novelists in the world. He was born Sidney Schechtel in Chicago, into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants. During the Great Depression, he worked at a variety of jobs and attended Northwestern University. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood with the dream of becoming a screenwriter, and landed a job reviewing scripts and collaborated on a number of B movies. After World War II, Sheldon moved to New York City where he began writing musicals for the Broadway stage while writing screenplays for MGM and Paramount. By age 25, had three musicals musical hits simultaneously and won a Tony Award. As a young Hollywood screenwriter earned an Oscar for ’źThe Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer’Ź and was the creative pen behind such movie classics as ’źEaster Parade’Ź and ’źAnnie Get Your Gun.’Ź Sheldon later produced and scripted ’źThe Patty Duke Show’Ź as well as the TV hits ’źI Dream of Jeannie’Ź and ’źHart to Hart.’Ź In 1969, at age 50, he wrote his first novel ’źThe Naked Face’Ź and his second novel ’źThe Other Side of Midnight’Ź climbed to #1 on the best-seller list. His novels often featured determined women who persevere in a tough world run by hostile men. Sheldon went on to author a string of other international best-sellers, including ’źBloodline,’Ź ’źRage of Angels,’Ź ’źMaster of the Game,’Ź ’źIf Tomorrow Comes,’Ź ’źWindmills of the Gods,’Ź and ’źThe Sands of Time’Ź ’Ŭ which sold more than 100 million copies in 30 countries. Sidney Sheldon struggled with bipolar disorder for years and contemplated suicide at age 17. He addressed the student delegates at the 1990 Achievement Summit in Chicago, the place of his birth more than seventy years earlier.