Roderick Thorp

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Roderick Mayne Thorp Junior (born September 1, 1936 in New York , † April 28, 1999 in Oxnard ) was an American writer . He wrote detective novels , including the novel templates for the films The Detective and Die Hard .

Life

He studied at the City College of New York , which gave him awards for his short stories, and graduated from there in 1957. He initially worked as a car salesman, for a men's outfitter, for an insurance company, and founded a catering company. As a young man he also worked as an agent for his father's detective agency.

After his moderately successful debut Into the Forest from 1961, Hartnäckig became a bestseller in 1966. In Stubbornly it comes to mellow policeman Joe Leland. The story was filmed in 1968 by Gordon Douglas with Frank Sinatra in the lead role as The Detective . His third novel, Dionysus (1969), tells the story of a black man who is in love with a white woman and the resulting aversions.

In 1971, together with Robert Blake, he conducted interviews with schoolchildren and students, which they published as The Music of Their Laughter . This shows a picture of an alienated and freedom-seeking generation. In the same year he wrote the crime thriller Wives with Blake .

From 1971 to 1976 he was a lecturer in literature at the Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah . He then moved to California and gave lectures in creative writing . The character of Joe Leland from Stubborn reappears in Die Hard in 1979 . The 1988 film version (script: Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza ) turns Leland into John McClane, played by Bruce Willis . Thorp mentored budding writers over the Internet. He also wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. Roderick Thorp was married and had two sons.

Works

  • Into the Forest (1961)
  • Persistent ( The Detective , 1966)
  • Dionysus (1969)
  • with Robert Blake (Ed.): The Music of Their Laughter (1971)
  • Wives (1971 with Robert Blake)
  • Slaves
  • Circle of Love (1974)
  • Westfield (1977)
  • Die Hard ( Nothing Lasts Forever 1979)
  • Jenny and Barnum: A Novel of Love (1981)
  • Rainbow Drive (1986)
  • Devlin
  • River: A Novel of the Green River Killings (1995)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jack Adrian: Obituaries: Roderick Thorp . In: The Independent , May 22, 1999
  2. ↑ a b Jon Thurber: Roderick Thorp; Writer of 'Die Hard,' 'The Detective' . In: Los Angeles Times , May 2, 1999, pp. B-5.
  3. ↑ a b c Nick Ravo: Roderick Thorp, 62, a Detective Turned Popular Crime Novelist . In: The New York Times , May 4, 1999.
  4. ^ Robert A. Lee: Dionysus by Roderick Thorp . In: Negro American Literature Forum 7, No. 3, 1973, p. 107.
  5. ↑ Patrick J. Sullivan: 'The Music of their Laughter', eds. Roderick Thorp and Robert Blake; and 'Our Time is Now', ed. John Birmingham. In: College Composition and Communication. 23, No. 1, 1972, pp. 94-97.
personal data
SURNAME Thorp, Roderick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thorp, Roderick Mayne junior (full name); Detective, The
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1999
Place of death Oxnard