Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) was an American novelist and screenwriter whose many novels all hit number one on the New York Times best-seller list. He is the seventh-best-selling fiction author of all time, with an estimated 600 million copies of work sold.
Born in Chicago to Russian-Jewish ancestry, Sheldon won a scholarship to Northwestern University after graduating from high school, but he had to abandon college because of the Great Depression. He worked at odd jobs before moving to New York City to write songs. None of these careers materialized.
When Sheldon finally moved to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, Universal Studios hired him to review and summarize the scripts they received. Sheldon worked on his scripts in his free time. His first major movie screenplay was for the Cary Grant-starrer The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947.) This film won the Oscar for best original screenplay. Sheldon created, produced, and wrote (under a pseudonym) NBC’s I Dream of Jeannie (1965–70) and ABC’s The Patty Duke Show (1963–66.)
Sheldon did not start writing novels until he was 53 years old. His popular novels, such as The Sky is Falling (2001) and The Other Side of Midnight (1990,) are sold in over 180 countries and 51 languages.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Sidney Sheldon
You have two choices. You can keep running and hiding and blaming the world for your problems, or you can stand up for yourself and decide to be somebody important.
—Sidney Sheldon
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