Michael Crichton

Jim Cooper / AP /

By Rachel Abramowitz

It’s hard to imagine modern-day Hollywood without provocative potboiler author Michael Crichton, the Harvard-trained doctor whose fertile imagination fused science and fear in heart-stopping fashion, launching upon unsuspecting moviegoers extraterrestrial killer micro-organisms (“The Andromeda Strain”), the black-market trade in organs (“Coma”), an amusement park full of fantasy-fulfilling androids (“Westworld”), Adrenalin-junkie tornado chasers (“Twister”) and of course, genetically recreated dinosaurs running amok (“The Jurassic Park” franchise).

In his spare time, the 6-foot-9 author who could churn out 10,000 words a day, tackled the murky politics of sexual harassment (“Disclosure”), questionable Japanese business practices (“Rising Sun”), and created “ER”, one of the most popular television series of all time. He’s probably the only person in America ever to have a No. 1 book, No. 1 movie and No. 1 TV show all at the same time.