Occupation Novelist Education Harvard University Role Writer | Name Gregory Mcdonald Genre Mystery Movies Fletch, Running Scared | |
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Born February 15, 1937
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, United States ( 1937-02-15 ) Notable works Fletch (series)
Flynn (series) Died September 7, 2008, Giles County, Tennessee, United States Awards Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original Books Fletch, Fletch's fortune, Fletch Won, Confess - Fletch, Fletch and the Widow Bradley Similar People Michael Ritchie, Andrew Bergman, Judson Philips, David Hemmings | ||
Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald
Gregory Mcdonald (February 15, 1937 – September 7, 2008) was an American mystery writer best known for his creation of the character Irwin Maurice Fletcher, an investigative reporter who preferred the nickname "Fletch."
Contents
Two of the Fletch books earned Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America: Fletch was named Best First Novel in 1975, and Confess, Fletch won for Best Paperback Original in 1977. This is the only time a novel and its sequel won back-to-back Edgars. Mcdonald would go on to write seven more Fletch novels, including the prequels Fletch Won and Fletch Too. The original book became a 1985 movie of the same name starring Chevy Chase.
Early life
Mcdonald was born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He was educated at Harvard, paying his own way by operating yachts.
Career
He worked as a teacher before becoming a journalist for the Boston Globe in the late 1960s. He finally left his newspaper position to become a novelist full-time with the publication of Fletch.
Fletch novels
In 1985, the first novel in the Fletch series was adapted into a movie with Chevy Chase playing the irreverent investigative reporter. Chase would reprise his role in the 1989 sequel Fletch Lives. Though Mcdonald had never really seen Chevy Chase perform in anything substantial, he readily agreed to the casting of the actor in the role, and had nothing but praise for his performance.
In Confess, Fletch, Mcdonald also introduced his second signature protagonist, Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn, a brilliant but eccentric Boston Police homicide detective who served as a foil for Fletch. Flynn would go on to appear in four of his own spin-off novels. The Fletch series also spawned the Son of Fletch series, in which Mcdonald introduced the character of Jack Faoni, the illegitimate son of Irwin Maurice Fletcher. In addition, Mcdonald wrote two novels in the Skylar series and a number of non-series (and non-mystery) novels.
Personal life
In the mid-1980s, he moved to Pulaski, Tennessee. There, he bought an antebellum farm and became involved in local politics. He died at his home from prostate cancer in 2008.