27 william diehl biography
William Diehl
Born
in Atlanta, The United StatesDecember 04, 1924
Died
November 24, 2006
Genre
Mystery & Thrillers, Photojournalism
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William Diehl was an American novelist and photojournalist.
Diehl was fifty years old and already a successful photographer and journalist when he decided to begin a writing career. His first novel, Sharky's Machine, which became a movie by the same name was directed by and starred Burt Reynolds. Diehl saw the movie shot on location in and around his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
Following the success of Sharky's Machine, Diehl relocated to St. Simons Island, GA in the early 80's where he lived for the next 15 years before going back to the Atlanta area. While living on St. Simons, he completed eight more novels, including Primal Fear, which also became a movie by the same name starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton. Diehl died at Emory UniWilliam Diehl was an American novelist and photojournalist.
Diehl was fifty years old and already a successful photographer and journalist when he decided to begin a writing career. His first novel, Sharky's Machine, which became a movie by the same name was directed by and starred Burt Reynolds. Diehl saw the movie shot on location in and around his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.
Following the success of Sharky's Machine, Diehl relocated to St. Simons Island, GA in the early 80's where he lived for the next 15 years before going back to the Atlanta area. While living on St. Simons, he completed eight more novels, including Primal Fear, which also became a movie by the same name starring Richard Gere and Edward Norton. Diehl died at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on November 24, 2006, of an aortic aneurism. He was a resident of Woodstock, Georgia at the time of his death and was working on his tenth novel.
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William Diehl, 81; war experiences influenced writer’s popular thrillers
William Diehl, the bestselling author known best for “Sharky’s Machine” and “Primal Fear” -- fast-paced thrillers that became hit movies -- died Friday at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. He was 81.
The cause was an aortic aneurysm, said a longtime friend, Don Smith.
Diehl was a former journalist and photographer who became a novelist late in life after a dispirited awakening at his 50th birthday party. Over the next three decades he wrote nine novels that appealed to popular tastes with plotlines fueled by murder, greed, romance and other forms of mayhem.
For instance, in “27” (1990, later reissued as “The Hunt”), a woman is brutally murdered by Hitler’s henchmen; in “Primal Fear” (1993), an archbishop is butchered by an angelic-looking Appalachian youth; in “Show of Evil” (1995), a young woman is found dead with a mysterious code printed in blood on the back of her head.
He was believed to have been nearly finished with his 10th novel when he was hospitalized last week. It is titled “Seven Ways to Die.”
Diehl, a native of Jamaica, N.Y., often cited his experiences during World War II as a strong influence on his fiction. He lied about his age to join the Army Air Corps at 17 and served as a ball turret gunner on a B-24 during World War II. His conduct in that perilous job earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart and Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters.
Even without World War II, Diehl’s life was more eventful than most.
According to family lore, Mae West was once his baby-sitter, before she became a Hollywood sex symbol.
On a school field trip in 1937, he witnessed the explosion of the Hindenburg, then the world’s largest aircraft.
After the war, he graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in creative writing and history and in 1949 moved to Atlanta, where he joined the staff of the Atlanta Constitution. He got the job after staking out the newsp (William Francis Diehl, Jr.) PERSONAL: Born December 4, 1924, in Jamaica, NY; son of William Francis and Catherine Marie Diehl; married Virginia Arnold, 1953 (divorced, 1968); married Catherine Clifford, 1970 (divorced, 1980); married Virginia Gunn (a television performer), December 31, 1982; children: (first marriage) Cathy (Mrs. John Lovern), William Francis III, Stanford Arnold, Melissa; (second marriage) Temple. Education: University of Missouri (now University of Missouri—Columbia), B.A., 1949. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Films, snow skiing, swimming, travel (especially in the Orient), raising huskies, psychism and the occult, Oriental philosophy, Egyptian history (has a reading knowledge of hieroglyphics), politics, reading. ADDRESSES: Home—Woodstock, GA. Agent—c/o Publicity Department, Random House Publishing Group, 1745 Broadway, 18th Fl., New York, NY 10019. CAREER: Writer and journalist. Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, GA, reporter and author of column "Around Atlanta," 1949–55; free-lance writer and photographer, 1955–60; Atlanta, Atlanta, staff writer and managing editor, 1960–66; New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, consulting and senior editor, 1966–67; Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, consulting and senior editor, 1968–69; free-lance writer, 1969–. Free-lance photographer, 1958–75, with Black Star Agency and United States Information Agency; former official photographer for Martin Luther King, Jr. Actor with Atlanta theater groups, 1958–63. Military service: U.S. Army Air Forces, ball turret gunner, 1942–45; served in Europe; became master sergeant; received Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and two Presidential Citations. MEMBER: Sigma Delta Chi. AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished reporting award from Sigma Delta Chi, 1953; spot news award of the year from Associated Press, 1953; annual fiction award from Dixie Council of Writers, 1979, for American writer (1924–2006) This article is about the author. For the mayor of Pittsburgh, see William J. Diehl. For the American mycologist, see William Webster Diehl. William Diehl William Diehl (; December 4, 1924 – November 24, 2006) was an American novelist and photojournalist. During World War II, Diehl lied about his age to join the U.S. Army Air Corps at 17, serving as a ball turretgunner on a B-24 Liberator where he flew 24 missions over Germany. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. Diehl often cited his experiences during the war as a strong influence on his fiction. Diehl was also a successful photographer and journalist, when he began his novel-writing career at 50. His first novel, Sharky's Machine, was made into the 1981 film of the same name, directed by and starring Burt Reynolds. Diehl saw it being shot on location in and around his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. It was the most successful box-office release of a film directed by Reynolds. Diehl relocated to St. Simons Island, Georgia, in the early 1980s, and lived there for the next 15 years before returning to Atlanta. While living on St. Simons, he completed eight other novels, including Primal Fear, which was adapted into the 1996 film of the same name. Diehl died of an aortic aneurysm at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on November 24, 2006. Diehl, William 1924–
William Diehl
Born (1924-12-04)December 4, 1924
Woodstock, Georgia, U.S.Died November 24, 2006(2006-11-24) (aged 81)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.Occupation Author, photojournalist Period 1977–2006 Biography
Death
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