Fond Farewells
Michael Crichton, 1942-2008
Ralph Crane / Time Life Pictures / GettyIt would take half a dozen obituaries to do Crichton justice. He was a movie director (Westworld) and a TV producer (ER), and oh, yes, a Harvard-trained doctor. (He was also a towering 6 ft. 9 in. tall.) But those were sidelines compared to his career as a novelist, the author of The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park and more than a dozen others. All told, he sold over 100 million books. A skeptic and a contrarian, Crichton pioneered the techno-thriller, the genre that epitomizes the 20th century's fascination with, and suspicion of, the relentless advance of science. Crichton was fascinated by technology and computers even as he warned us, often with uncanny prescience, of how little we could do to control them.
—Lev Grossman
Fond Farewells: Full List
- William F. Buckley, 1925-2008
- George Carlin, 1937-2008
- Cyd Charisse, 1921-2008
- Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008
- Michael Crichton, 1942-2008
- Mahmoud Darwish, 1942-2008
- Michael DeBakey, 1908-2008
Adrian Kantrowitz, 1918-2008 - Anne d'Harnoncourt, 1943-2008
- Bo Diddley, 1928-2008
- Mark Felt, 1913-2008
- Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008
- Gary Gygax, 1938-2008
- Jörg Haider, 1950-2008
- Grace Hartigan, 1922-2008
- Isaac Hayes, 1942-2008
- Jesse Helms, 1921-2008
- Charlton Heston, 1923-2008
- Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008
- Eartha Kitt, 1927-2008
- Heath Ledger, 1979-2008
- Sherman Lee, 1918-2008
- Mildred Loving, 1939-2008
- Bernie Mac, 1957-2008
- Miriam Makeba, 1932-2008
- Jim McKay, 1921-2008
- Anthony Minghella, 1954-2008
- Imad Mughniyah, 1962-2008
- Paul Newman, 1925-2008
- Odetta, 1930-2008
- Bettie Page, 1923-2008
- Randy Pausch, 1960-2008
- Harold Pinter, 1930-2008
- Suzanne Pleshette, 1937-2008
- Sydney Pollack, 1934-2008
- Dith Pran, 1942-2008
- Robert Rauschenberg, 1925-2008
- Tim Russert, 1950-2008
- Yves Saint Laurent, 1936-2008
- Tony Snow, 1955-2008
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1918-2008
- Suharto, 1921-2008
- Studs Terkel, 1912-2008
- Jørn Utzon, 1918-2008
- David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1918-2008
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Year in Review 2008
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