Spillane Dead at 88

[Kire]

Spillane Dead at 88
Acclaimed crime writer Mickey Spillane has died after a long illness. He was 88. Born Frank Morrison Spillane in Brooklyn, New York in 1918, the author is best remembered as the creator of top TV and movie sleuth Mike Hammer, who appeared in his very first book, I, The Jury, in 1947. Spillane's first stories were published in comic books and pulp magazines. He wrote storylines for Captain America and The Human Torch, among others. Spillane went from writing about heroes to becoming one during World War Two when he worked as a flying instructor for the US Army Air Force. Upon returning to civilian life and reportedly keen to find the money to buy a house, Spillane attempted to turn his private investigator character Hammer into a household name. Between 1950 and 1952, the author wrote five Hammer novels. Each one was bigger than its predecessor and Spillane and Hammer quickly became beloved. The character has been portrayed many times on screen - even Spillane played Hammer in 1963's The Girl Hunters. He once boasted, "I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead." Spillane was married three times and fathered four children.

http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2006-07-18/#2

[Hardrada]

1. Hhe wrote one book that became a hell of a good noir flick.

Involved a nuclear weapon and is also sort of a fable for our time.

[longship]

2. Damn! Gotta rent "Kiss Me Deadly" for weekend.

on edit: That's the classic noir flick mentioned in previous post.

Also, it's Cloris Leachman's first movie. (You'll hardly recognize her.)

www.imdb.com/title/tt0048261/

[thefamethrowa]

3. Yeah.

I'm surprised no one has replied with some nauseatingly PC critique of Spillane's work; while it wasn't literary gold, it was interesting and influential. I really liked him playing Hammer in that one movie.

One commentator gave a lecture (a dissenting opinion) on Spillane, going on about how awfully misogynistic Mike Hammer was, how he impregnates the villainess with his gun in the first novel, and other such belch. It peeves me when people expect antiheroes to be good role models.

[mitchum]

4. I agree with you about Spillane and Hammer...

it's always driven me nuts when the naysayers crucify Spillane for not having Hammer abide by the Chandler chivalric code.
I always want to scream at them, "He's Mike Hammer, not Philip Marlowe!"