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Elmore Leonard

Elmore LeonardAKA Elmore John Leonard, Jr.

Born: 11-Oct-1925
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA
Died: 20-Aug-2013
Location of death: Bloomfield Township, MI
Cause of death: unspecified

Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Novelist

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Crime novelist, including Swag

Military service: US Navy (1943-46)

Elmore Leonard was the author of numerous westerns and hard-boiled crime novels. Leonard grew up in Detroit and served in the US Navy before attending the University of Michigan. Friends called him "Dutch", a nickname that somehow stuck on Leonard from childhood, named for a pitcher with the Washington Senators, Emil "Dutch" Leonard. He married in 1949, and eventually fathered five children. He began supporting his increasingly large family by writing advertising copy, mostly for Chevrolet. In his spare time he wrote Westerns, but they did not bring in enough money to live on. In 1951, Leonard was ready to quit the ad business and concentrate on writing full-time, but his agent talked him out of it. After the success of the Paul Newman's dramatization of Leonard's Hombre, he finally quit his day job.

Quentin Tarantino was arrested for shoplifting a copy of Leonard's novel The Switch from a K-Mart in 1979, and years later filmed one Leonard novel (Rum Punch, re-titled Jackie Brown) and has optioned four more. Leonard's many other novels adapted to the big screen include Tishomingo Blues starring Matthew McConaughey and Don Cheadle, Get Shorty with John Travolta, The Big Bounce with Ryan O'Neal and again 25 years later with Owen Wilson, and 3:10 to Yuma, a 1957 western with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. In November 2004, Leonard was part of the Supreme Court decision Twist v. McFarlane, which allows writers to draw upon real people for the names or lives of the characters they create.

Father: Elmore John Leonard, Sr. (General Motors executive)
Mother: Flora (Rive) Leonard (homemaker)
Wife: Beverly Cline (m. 1949, div. 1977, five children)
Wife: Joan Shephard (m. 1979, d. 1993 cancer)
Wife: Christine Kent (French teacher, m. 1993, div. 2011)
Son: Peter Leonard
Son: Chris Leonard

    High School: University of Detroit High School (1944)
    University: BA English Literature and Philosophy, University of Detroit (1950)

    Endorsement of American Express
    Alcoholics Anonymous
    Edgar Allan Poe Award Grand Master (1992)
    Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Novel, for La Brava (1984)
    Stroke 29-Jul-2013
    Risk Factors: Alcoholism

    TELEVISION
    Justified Executive Producer (2010-)

Official Website:
http://www.elmoreleonard.com/

Author of books:
The Bounty Hunters (1953, novel)
The Law at Randado (1954, novel)
Escape from Five Shadows (1956, novel)
Last Stand at Saber River (1959, novel)
Hombre (1961, novel, 1967 film)
The Big Bounce (1969, novel, 1969 film, 2004 film)
The Moonshine War (1969, novel, 1970 film)
Valdez is Coming (1970, novel, 1971 film)
Forty Lashes Less One (1972, novel)
Mr. Majestyk (1974, novel)
Fifty-Two Pickup (1974, novel, 1986 film)
Swag (1976, novel)
Unknown man No. 89 (1977, novel)
The Hunted (1977, novel)
The Switch (1978, novel)
Gunsights (1979, novel)
City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (1980, novel)
Gold Coast (1980, novel)
Split Images (1981, novel, 1992 film)
Cat Chaser (1982, novel, 1989 film)
Stick (1983, novel, 1985 film)
LaBrava (1983, novel)
Glitz (1985, novel)
Bandits (1987, novel)
Touch (1987, novel, 1997 film)
Freaky Deaky (1988, novel)
Killshot (1989, novel)
Get Shorty (1990, novel, 1995 film)
Maximum Bob (1991, novel)
Rum Punch (1992, novel, 1997 film Jackie Brown)
Pronto (1993, novel)
Riding the Rap (1995, novel)
Out of Sight (1996, novel, 1998 film)
Cuba Libre (1998, novel)
Be Cool (1999, novel)
Tonto Woman (1998, novel)
Pagan Babies (2000, novel)
Fire in the Hole (2001, novel)
Tishomingo Blues (2002, novel)
Mr Paradise (2004, novel)
A Coyote's in the House (2004, novel)
Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard (2004, short stories)


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