Elmore Leonard Biography

Writer

Elmore Leonard has been a top-selling writer since the mid-1980s, the author of more than three dozen crime and western novels famous for their crackling dialogue and dark humor. Leonard had a career in advertising when he began writing westerns in the 1950s. The success of the movie version of his novel Hombre allowed him to write novels full-time and he turned to writing fast-paced crime stories in the late 1960s. In the 1970s he began getting noticed by reviewers and critics, and by the mid-1980s he was a consistently bankable author. His stories often revolve around the misadventures of amiable-but-crooked protagonists and lowlifes, characters who are thieves, hustlers, prostitutes and loan sharks. His novels include Glitz (1985), Freaky Deaky (1988), Tishomingo Blues (2002) and Road Dogs (2009). Films made from his novels include: Hombre (1967, starring Paul Newman); Valdez is Coming (1971, starring Burt Lancaster); Get Shorty (1995, starring John Travolta): Jackie Brown (1997, starring Pam Grier, from the 1992 novel Rum Punch): Out of Sight (1998, starring George Clooney as bank robber Jack Foley, and Jennifer Lopez); and The Big Bounce (2004, starring Owen Wilson).

Extra credit: Leonard has written several screenplays, including Joe Kidd (1972, starring Clint Eastwood) and Mr. Majestyk (1974)... Leonard is also referred to as "Dutch," a childhood nickname... Out of Sight was the basis for the 2003 television series Karen Sisco. Jack Foley, the bank-robbing hero of Out of Sight, reappeared in Leonard's 2009 novel Road Dogs.

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