Sidney Sheldon - wikipedia Sidney Sheldon Sidney Sheldon Sidney Schechtel ( 1917 - 02 - 11 ) February 11, 1917 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. January 30, 2007 ( 2007 - 01 - 30 ) ( aged 89 ) Rancho Mirage, California, United States Occupation Novelist Nationality American Period 1969 -- 2007 Genre Crime fiction, Thriller Spouse Jane Kaufman Harding ( 1945 -- 1948 ; divorced ) Jorja Curtright ( 1951 -- 1985 ; her death ; 1 child ) Alexandra Joyce Kostoff ( 1989 -- 2007 ; his death ) Sidney Sheldon ( February 11, 1917 -- January 30, 2007 ) was an American writer and producer. He came to prominence 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 Academy Award. He went on to work in television, where his works spanned a 20 - year period during which he created The Patty Duke Show ( 1963 -- 66 ), I Dream of Jeannie ( 1965 -- 70 ) and Hart to Hart ( 1979 -- 84 ). He became most famous after he turned 50 and 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 ). He is the seventh best selling fiction writer of all time. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Death 5 Tilly Bagshawe 6 North Korea 7 Awards 8 Bibliography 8.1 Novels 8.2 Autobiography 8.3 Broadway plays 8.4 London plays 8.5 Films as Writer 8.6 Television 9 References 10 External links Early life Sheldon was born Sidney Schechtel in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, of Russian Jewish ancestry, were Ascher `` Otto '' Schechtel ( 1894 -- 1967 ), manager of a jewelry store, and Natalie Marcus. At 10, Sidney made his first sale, US $5 for a poem. During the Depression, he worked at a variety of jobs, and after graduating from East High School ( Denver ), he attended Northwestern University on a scholarship and contributed short plays to drama groups. He had to drop out after six months during the Depression era to help support his family. Career In 1937, Sheldon moved to Hollywood, California, where he reviewed scripts and collaborated on a number of B movies. Sheldon enlisted in the military during World War II as a pilot in the War Training Service, a branch of the Army Air Corps, His unit was disbanded before he saw any action. Returning to civilian life, he moved to New York City where he began writing musicals for the Broadway stage while continuing to write screenplays for both MGM Studios and Paramount Pictures. He earned a reputation as a prolific writer ; for example, at one time he had three musicals on Broadway : a rewritten The Merry Widow, Jackpot, and Dream with Music. His success on Broadway brought him back to Hollywood where his first assignment was The Bachelor and the Bobby - Soxer, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay of 1947. He was one of the writers on the screenplay for the 1948 musical film Easter Parade and sole writer for the 1950 musical film Annie Get Your Gun, both of which featured the songs of Irving Berlin. When television became the new popular medium, he decided to try his hand in it. `` I suppose I needed money, '' he remembered. `` I met Patty Duke one day at lunch. So I produced The Patty Duke Show, and I did something nobody else in TV ever did. For seven years, I wrote almost every single episode of the series. '' Sheldon created, produced and wrote I Dream of Jeannie in his co-production capacity with Screen Gems. He wrote all but two dozen scripts in five years, sometimes using three pseudonyms ( Mark Rowane, Allan Devon, Christopher Golato ) while simultaneously writing scripts for The Patty Duke Show. He also used the same pseudonyms in writing all seventeen episodes of Nancy. He later admitted that he did this because he felt his name was appearing too often in the credits as creator, producer, copyright owner and writer of these series. He also created and wrote for the series Hart to Hart. Production for I Dream of Jeannie ended in 1970 after five seasons. It was `` During the last year of I Dream of Jeannie, I decided to try a novel, '' he said in 1982. `` Each morning from 9 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. '' In 1969, Sheldon wrote his first novel, The Naked Face, which earned him a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America in the category of Best First Novel. His next novel, The Other Side of Midnight, climbed to # 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list as did several ensuing novels, a number of which were also made into motion pictures or TV miniseries. His novels often featured determined women who persevere in a tough world run by hostile men. The novels contained a lot of suspense and devices to keep the reader turning the page : I try to write my books so the reader ca n't put them down, '' he explained in a 1982 interview. `` I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of it, 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. Most of his readers were women. Asked why this was the case he said : `` I like to write about women who are talented and capable, but most important, retain their femininity. Women have tremendous power -- their femininity, because men ca n't do without it. '' Books were Sheldon 's favorite medium. `` I love writing books, '' he commented. `` Movies are a collaborative medium, and everyone is second - guessing you. When you do a novel you 're on your own. It 's a freedom that does n't exist in any other medium. '' He was the author of 18 novels which have sold over 300 million copies. Three years before his death, The Los Angeles Times called Sheldon `` Mr. Blockbuster '' and `` prince of potboilers. '' Personal life Sheldon was first married to Jane Kaufman Harding ( 1945 -- 1948 ). 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. '' He was married for 30 years to Jorja Curtright, a stage and film actress who later became an interior designer. She appeared in a Season One episode of I Dream of Jeannie. She died of a heart attack in 1985. Their daughter, Mary Sheldon, became a novelist as well. He married Alexandra Joyce Kostoff, a former child actress in Las Vegas in 1989. He 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. Death A resident of Palm Springs, California, Sheldon died on January 30, 2007, of pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California 12 days before his 90th birthday. His remains were cremated, the ashes interred in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Tilly Bagshawe Following Sheldon 's death, Author Tilly Bagshawe has written several novels in Sheldon 's style, sometimes featuring characters from Sheldon 's previous novels. North Korea Despite generally limited access to foreign literature, it has been reported that members of North Korea 's small English speaking elite are familiar with Sheldon 's work. Awards Sheldon won an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay ( 1947 ) for The Bachelor and the Bobby - Soxer, 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 had a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars dedicated to him in 1994. Bibliography Novels The Naked Face ( 1970 ) The Other Side of Midnight ( 1973 ) A Stranger in the Mirror ( 1976 ) Bloodline ( 1977 ) Rage of Angels ( 1980 ) Master of the Game ( 1982 ) If Tomorrow Comes ( 1985 ) Windmills of the Gods ( 1987 ) The Sands of Time ( 1988 ) Memories of Midnight ( 1990 ) The Doomsday Conspiracy ( 1991 ) The Stars Shine Down ( 1992 ) Nothing Lasts Forever ( 1994 ) Morning, Noon, and Night ( 1995 ) The Best Laid Plans ( 1997 ) Tell Me Your Dreams ( 1998 ) The Sky Is Falling ( 2001 ) Are You Afraid of the Dark ? ( 2004 ) Autobiography The Other Side of Me ( 2005 ) Broadway plays The Merry Widow ( 1943 ) Jackpot ( 1944 ) Dream with Music ( 1944 ) Alice in Arms ( 1945 ) Redhead ( 1959 ) Roman Candle ( 1960 ) London plays Gomes Films as Writer Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case ( 1941 ) She 's in the Army ( 1942 ) The Bachelor and the Bobby - Soxer ( 1947 ) Easter Parade ( 1948 ) The Barkleys of Broadway ( 1949 ) Annie Get Your Gun ( 1950 ) Nancy Goes to Rio ( 1950 ) Three Guys Named Mike ( 1951 ) Rich, Young and Pretty ( 1951 ) No Questions Asked ( 1952 ) Just This Once ( 1952 ) Dream Wife ( 1953 ) ( also director ) Remains to be Seen ( 1953 ) You 're Never Too Young ( 1955 ) Pardners ( 1956 ) Anything Goes ( 1956 ) The Birds and the Bees ( 1956 ) The Buster Keaton Story ( 1957 ) All in a Night 's Work ( 1961 ) Billy Rose 's Jumbo ( 1962 ) The Other Side of Midnight ( 1977 ) Bloodline ( 1979 ) Television The Patty Duke Show I Dream of Jeannie Nancy Hart to Hart ( Co-wrote pilot : 1979 ) Rage of Angels ( 1983 miniseries, based on his book ) Master of the Game ( 1984 miniseries, based on his book ) If Tomorrow Comes ( 1986 miniseries, based on his book ) Windmills of the Gods ( 1988 miniseries, based on his book ) Memories of Midnight ( 1991 miniseries, based on his book ) References Book : Sidney Sheldon Jump up ^ `` Bonhams : Alexandra and Sydney Sheldon 's exceptional collection up for auction at Bonhams Los Angeles ''. bonhams.com. Jump up ^ `` Sidney Sheldon : A chat with the best - selling author Sidney Sheldon about his book Tell Me Your Dreams '', CNN, July 13, 1999 ^ Jump up to : `` Welcome to SidneySheldon.com : The Official Website of the World 's Master Storyteller ''. hachettebookgroup.com. ^ Jump up to : `` Author Sidney Sheldon dies at 89 '', Associated Press, January 30, 2007. Archive copy. Jump up ^ `` Mr. Blockbuster '', The Los Angeles Times, September 25, 2004. Jump up ^ Sheldon, Sidney, The Other Side of Me, Warner Vision Books, 2005 Jump up ^ Los Angeles Times : `` Author Mary Sheldon, daughter of Sidney Sheldon, sells in Beverly Hills '' by Neal J. Leitereg March 19, 2016 Jump up ^ Alexandra Sheldon herself received a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars Frenzel, Gerhard G. ( 1999 ). Portrait of the Stars. Palm Springs, CA : Palm Springs Walk of Stars. p. 99. LCCN 98093956. OCLC 41260876. Jump up ^ Sidney Sheldon Archived February 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Johns, Howard ( 2004 ). Palm Springs Confidential : Playground of the Stars !. Fort Lee, NJ : Barricade Books. pp. 55, 86. ISBN 9781569802694. LCCN 2004041116. OCLC 54392060. LCC PN2285. J56 2004 Jump up ^ `` Sidney Sheldon, Author of Steamy Novels, Dies at 89 '', The New York Times, January 31, 2007. Jump up ^ Kim, Suki ( 2014 - 10 - 14 ). Without You, There Is No Us : Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea 's Elite. Crown. ISBN 9780307720665. Retrieved 16 July 2017. Jump up ^ Power, John. `` Foreign fiction present in North Korea, though restricted ''. NK News. Retrieved 16 July 2017. Jump up ^ Palm Springs Walk of Stars : By Date Dedicated Jump up ^ Internet Broadway Database ( IBDB ) Abbott, Alana Joli ( 2009 ). `` Sheldon, Sidney. '' Newsmakers 2008 Cumulation. Gale. Retrieved January 9, 2013, from HighBeam Research External links `` Sidney Sheldon : Meet Sidney Sheldon ( Former official site ) ''. HachetteBookGroupUSA.com ( Internet Archive ). Archived from the original on January 5, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007. Archive of American Television interview `` Sidney Sheldon : Meet Sidney Sheldon ( Official tribute ) ''. HachetteBookGroupUSA.com ( Internet Archive ). Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2007. `` Sidney Sheldon : Timeline ''. HachetteBookGroupUSA.com ( Internet Archive ). Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2007. Sidney Sheldon Papers at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Sidney Sheldon on IMDb Sidney Sheldon at the Internet Broadway Database Sidney Sheldon interview video at the Archive of American Television 1987 audio interview with Sidney Sheldon at Wired for Books.org by Don Swaim Two Sidney Sheldon Interviews on Sidewalks Entertainment Sheldon 's obituary at NYTimes.com Sidney Sheldon at Find a Grave Roy, Pinaki. `` Sidney Sheldon : Reviewing his Oeuvre ''. The Atlantic Critical Review Quarterly 12 ( 3 ), July -- September 2013 ( ISSN 0972 - 6373, ISBN 978 - 81 - 269 - 1902 - 4 ) : 1 - 14. Works by Sidney Sheldon Novels The Naked Face The Other Side of Midnight A Stranger in the Mirror Bloodline Rage of Angels Master of the Game If Tomorrow Comes Windmills of the Gods The Sands of Time Memories of Midnight The Doomsday Conspiracy The Stars Shine Down Nothing Lasts Forever Morning, Noon and Night The Best Laid Plans Tell Me Your Dreams The Sky is Falling Are You Afraid of the Dark ? Non-fiction The Other Side of Me Television The Patty Duke Show I Dream of Jeannie Nancy Hart to Hart Adaptations The Other Side of Midnight ( 1977 ) Bloodline ( 1979 ) Rage of Angels ( 1983 ) Master of the Game ( 1984 ) If Tomorrow Comes ( 1986 ) Windmills of the Gods ( 1988 ) Memories of Midnight ( 1991 ) Kshana Kshana ( 2007 ) Tilly Bagshawe novels Sidney Sheldon 's Mistress of the Game ( 2009 ) Sidney Sheldon 's After the Darkness ( 2010 ) Sidney Sheldon 's The Tides of Memory ( 2013 ) Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay 1940 -- 1960 Preston Sturges ( 1940 ) Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles ( 1941 ) Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner Jr. ( 1942 ) Norman Krasna ( 1943 ) Lamar Trotti ( 1944 ) Richard Schweizer ( 1945 ) Muriel Box and Sydney Box ( 1946 ) Sidney Sheldon ( 1947 ) No award ( 1948 ) Robert Pirosh ( 1949 ) Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman Jr. and Billy Wilder ( 1950 ) Alan Jay Lerner ( 1951 ) T.E.B. Clarke ( 1952 ) Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Walter Reisch ( 1953 ) Budd Schulberg ( 1954 ) Sonya Levien and William Ludwig ( 1955 ) Albert Lamorisse ( 1956 ) George Wells ( 1957 ) Nathan E. Douglas and Harold Jacob Smith ( 1958 ) Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse and Stanley Shapiro ( 1959 ) I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder ( 1960 ) 1961 -- 1980 William Inge ( 1961 ) Ennio de Concini, Pietro Germi, and Alfredo Giannetti ( 1962 ) James Webb ( 1963 ) Peter Stone and Frank Tarloff ( 1964 ) Frederic Raphael ( 1965 ) Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven ( 1966 ) William Rose ( 1967 ) Mel Brooks ( 1968 ) William Goldman ( 1969 ) Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North ( 1970 ) Paddy Chayefsky ( 1971 ) Jeremy Larner ( 1972 ) David S. Ward ( 1973 ) Robert Towne ( 1974 ) Frank Pierson ( 1975 ) Paddy Chayefsky ( 1976 ) Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman ( 1977 ) Robert C. Jones, Waldo Salt, and Nancy Dowd ( 1978 ) Steve Tesich ( 1979 ) Bo Goldman ( 1980 ) 1981 -- 2000 Colin Welland ( 1981 ) John Briley ( 1982 ) Horton Foote ( 1983 ) Robert Benton ( 1984 ) William Kelley, Pamela Wallace and Earl W. Wallace ( 1985 ) Woody Allen ( 1986 ) John Patrick Shanley ( 1987 ) Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow ( 1988 ) Tom Schulman ( 1989 ) Bruce Joel Rubin ( 1990 ) Callie Khouri ( 1991 ) Neil Jordan ( 1992 ) Jane Campion ( 1993 ) Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary ( 1994 ) Christopher McQuarrie ( 1995 ) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen ( 1996 ) Ben Affleck and Matt Damon ( 1997 ) Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard ( 1998 ) Alan Ball ( 1999 ) Cameron Crowe ( 2000 ) 2001 -- present Julian Fellowes ( 2001 ) Pedro Almodóvar ( 2002 ) Sofia Coppola ( 2003 ) Pierre Bismuth, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman ( 2004 ) Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco ( 2005 ) Michael Arndt ( 2006 ) Diablo Cody ( 2007 ) Dustin Lance Black ( 2008 ) Mark Boal ( 2009 ) David Seidler ( 2010 ) Woody Allen ( 2011 ) Quentin Tarantino ( 2012 ) Spike Jonze ( 2013 ) Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr., and Armando Bo ( 2014 ) Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer ( 2015 ) Kenneth Lonergan ( 2016 ) VIAF : 100259983 LCCN : n80032212 ISNI : 0000 0001 2145 2709 GND : 11805340X SUDOC : 02713654X BNF : cb119246377 ( data ) NDL : 00456325 BNE : XX970514 IATH : w6zc8s0v Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sidney_Sheldon&oldid=802886768 '' Categories : 1917 births 2007 deaths 20th - century American novelists 21st - century American novelists American male novelists American male screenwriters American military personnel of World War II Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery Tony Award winners Writers from Chicago Writers from Palm Springs, California People from Rancho Mirage, California American writers of Russian descent American people of Russian - Jewish descent Northwestern University alumni People with bipolar disorder Deaths from pneumonia Infectious disease deaths in California Jewish American novelists I Dream of Jeannie American Jews Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Use mdy dates from February 2012 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from September 2017 Articles with IBDb links Articles using Template : EmmyTVLegends name Find a Grave template with ID same as Wikidata Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia অসমীয়া Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه বাংলা Български Català Čeština Cymraeg Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 हिन्दी Ido Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Magyar Македонски മലയാളം मराठी Bahasa Melayu Dorerin Naoero Nederlands नेपाली 日本 語 Norsk Plattdüütsch Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் తెలుగు Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 29 September 2017, at 02 : 04. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what type of books does sidney sheldon write
Answer: romantic suspense novels