The incredibly successful and prolific writer Michael Crichton is back in the news seventeen years after his death as his estate sues over the idea-copyright of new medical drama series The Pitt. His books sold over 200 million with over a dozen adapted into films. His genre was within the science fiction, techno-thriller, and medical fiction. Best known are The Great Train Robbery, Jurassic Park, Rising Sun, The Andromeda Strain; and he was the creator of the television series ER (1994–2009).
He was born October 23, 1942 11.55pm Chicago, Illinois, and grew to six feet 9 inches tall which made him self-conscious so he turned to psychics and then meditation to give him confidence. He was a workaholic and married five times, all of them brief.
He had a 4th house Scorpio Sun opposition a 10th house Taurus Moon square Pluto on his Ascendant. The Full Moon would make him constantly unsure what he wanted, pulled between his head and his heart – and he’s also be intense and controlling as well as overly controlled. He also had Mars Venus in Libra also in his 4th close to his Sun opposition his Moon, making for an excitable and argumentative mood in his domestic life. Jupiter in his 12th would make him content with his own company. Saturn in his 11th would limit his friendship circle to a few trusted companions.
2nd house North Node – secretive and constantly feeling like an outsider. In Virgo – needing to build his confidence.
An interesting man, driven to an extent as all writers are by his inner demons. He died of cancer in 2008.
Steven Spielberg on Michael Crichton’s death: “Michael’s talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs walking the earth again. In the early days, Michael had just sold The Andromeda Strain to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionally Jurassic Park, ER, and Twister followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.”
Stephen King: “As a pop novelist, he was divine. A Crichton book was a headlong experience driven by a man who was both a natural storyteller and fiendishly clever when it came to verisimilitude; he made you believe that cloning dinosaurs wasn’t just over the horizon but possible tomorrow. Maybe today.”
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