Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer. He was prominent in the 1930s, first working on Broadway plays, and then in motion pictures, notably writing the successful comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), which earned him an Oscar in 1948.[1] He went on to work in television, where over twenty years he created The Patty Duke Show (1963–66), I Dream of Jeannie (1965–70), and Hart to Hart (1979–84).[2] After turning 50, he began writing best-selling romantic suspense novels, such as Master of the Game (1982), The Other Side of Midnight (1973), and Rage of Angels (1980).
Sidney Sheldon
Sidney Schechtel
February 11, 1917
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
January 30, 2007 (aged 89)
Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Novelist, screenwriter, television producer
1941–2007
Sheldon's novels have sold over 300 million copies in 51 languages.[3] Sheldon is consistently cited as one of the top ten best-selling fiction writers of all time.[4]
Early life[edit]
Sheldon was born Sidney Schechtel in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, of Ukrainian Jewish ancestry, were Ascher "Otto" Schechtel (1894–1967), manager of a jewelry store, and Natalie Marcus. At age 10, Sidney made his first sale, $5 for a poem. During the Great Depression, he worked at a variety of jobs, and after graduating from East High School in Denver, Colorado, he attended Northwestern University on a scholarship, and contributed short plays to drama groups. He had to drop out after six months to help support his family.[5] Sheldon enlisted in the military during World War II as a pilot in the War Training Service, a branch of the Army Air Corps.[6] His unit was disbanded, but he was discharged because of a recurring slipped disc before he was deployed.[7]
Personal life[edit]
Sheldon was first married to Jane Kaufman Harding (1945–1946). Later, he wrote, "Regretfully, in less than a month, Jane and I realized we had made a mistake. We spent the next nine months trying in vain to make the marriage work."[20]
He was married for thirty years to Jorja Curtright, a stage and film actress, who later became an interior designer.[21] She played Suzanne in the 1955 film, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, and appeared as Madame Zolta in season one of I Dream of Jeannie[22] in episode 25, "Bigger Than a Bread Box".[23] Curtright died of a heart attack in 1985. Their daughter, Mary Sheldon, became a novelist as well.[24][25]
Sheldon married Alexandra Joyce Kostoff, a former child actress,[26][27] in Las Vegas in 1989.[28]
Sheldon struggled with bipolar disorder for years; he contemplated suicide at 17 (talked out of it by his father, who found him with a bottle of whiskey and several bottles of sleeping pills), as detailed in his autobiography published in 2005, The Other Side of Me.[29]
Death[edit]
A resident of Palm Springs, California,[30] Sheldon died on January 30, 2007, of pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California, twelve days before his 90th birthday.[6][1] His remains were cremated; the ashes were interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Awards[edit]
Sheldon won an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay (1947) for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and a Tony Award (1959) for his musical Redhead, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on I Dream of Jeannie, an NBC sitcom. Sheldon was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1988[31] had a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated to him in 1994.[32] In 1990, Sheldon received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[33]