Born John Michael Crichton in Chicago, IL.; grew up in Roslyn, NY, a suburb of New York City. His father was a journalist, and encouraged him to write and to type. At 6'10", young Crichton played high school basketball. He gave up studying English at Harvard. having become disillusioned with the teaching standards -- the final straw came when he submitted an essay by George Orwell which was graded "B". After giving up English and spending a year in Europe, he returned to Boston and the Harvard Medical School to train as a doctor. He was persuaded several times not to quit the course but did so after qualifying. During his medical student days he secretly wrote novels; one of which, A Case of Need, contained references to people at Harvard Medical School (he used the name Jeffery Hudson), but couldn't hide when it won an Edgar® Award from the Mystery Writers of America, (it was later adapted into the 1972 film THE CAREY TREATMENT) and he had to collect it in person. After giving up medicine, Crichton moved to Hollywood in the early 70s and began directing movies based on his books. He has become a phenomenally successful writer who has carved out an enviable niche in Hollywood, with adaptations of his own books and a number of original screenplays. His novel The Andromeda Strain, written under his own name in 1969, became his first best-seller; it also became a film, as did his subsequent novels Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty Brick Lost-Bag Blues (written with his brother Douglas) and The Terminal Man. His track record enabled Crichton to win the chance to direct an original screenplay, WESTWORLD (1973), a minor science-fiction classic about a futuristic resort populated by robots that, inevitably, run amok, was the first feature film to use digitized images. He followed with the popular thriller COMA (1978), which featured Geneviève Bujold as an unusually tough heroine, and then helmed the lighthearted adaptation of his own novel The Great Train Robbery (1979, also director), for which he had won another Edgar Award. Less successful high-tech thrillers followed -- LOOKER (1981) and RUNAWAY (1984). PHYSICAL EVIDENCE (1988, which he directed but did not write) did not turn the tide. His stock soared in 1993 when two of his most popular novels were brought to the screen back to back; he co-wrote the screenplays for the controversial RISING SUN (1993) and JURASSIC PARK (also 1993), a story of modern-day dinosaurs that quickly became the most popular movie in history. In 1994, Crichton co-produced the film adaptation of his novel Disclosure. He scored again -- with audiences, if not with critics -- in 1995, with CONGO. He co-wrote 1996's TWISTER (also producer), starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, with his wife Anne-Marie Martin. (They divorced in 2002.) Other notable credits include THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997, novel), SPHERE (1998, novel, also producer), THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999, novel The Eaters of the Dead - also producer & director), JURASSIC PARK III (2001, characters) and TIMELINE (2003, novel). Crichton is the creator and executive producer of the long-running TV series "E.R." (1994-2008). Crichton received the Association of American Medical Writers Award for Five Patients: The Hospital Explained (1970). His autobiography, Travels (1993) begins: "It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw."  Technical Achievement Awards (Certificate) 1994: For pioneering computerized motion picture budgeting and scheduling. (w. Jack C. Smith and Emil Safier) 1 Scientific/Technical Award