Wednesday, January 31, 2007

RIP Sidney Sheldon (1917-2007)

Author and TV producer Sidney Sheldon passed away Tuesday afternoon of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, his publicist Warren Cowan said, His wife, Alexandra, was by his side. Sheldon was 89 years old.

I will remember Mr. Sheldon most for his work in television. My late Mom was a big fan of both "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965-1970) and "The Patty Duke Show" (1963-1966) and I remember watching reruns of both series with her as a kid. Sheldon would also find success with the light-hearted drama series "Hart to Hart" (1979-1984), in which Stefanie Powers and Robert Wagner played a wealthy married couple who solved crimes together.

Earlier in his career he wrote the screenplays for a host of films including the musicals Easter Parade (1948), Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and Anything Goes (1956). He penned the comedy The Birds and the Bees (1956) and the popular You're Never Too Young (1955) He wrote produced and directed The Buster Keaton Story biopic (1957)

He won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for 1947's The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

Sheldon left TV and film behind at age 50 and went on to become a highly successful novelist...

For more on the life and career of Sidney Sheldon--Read the Entertainment Weekly tribute...

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