Occupation Novelist, writer Genre Crime | Name Roderick Thorp Role Novelist | |
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Died April 28, 1999, Oxnard, California, United States Movies Die Hard, A Good Day to Die Hard, Live Free or Die Hard, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Detective Books Nothing Lasts Forever, The Detective, Jenny and Barnum, River: A Novel of the Green, Rainbow Drive Similar People Jeb Stuart, Steven E de Souza, John McTiernan, Skip Woods, John Moore | ||
A Good Day To Die Hard helecapter fight scene
Roderick Mayne Thorp, Jr. (September 1, 1936 – April 28, 1999) was an American novelist specializing mainly in police procedural/ crime novels.
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His 1966 novel The Detective was made into a 1968 film of the same name, starring Frank Sinatra as Detective Joe Leland. He is however better known for its sequel, the bestselling novel Nothing Lasts Forever, which is the basis for the film Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis.
The Los Angeles Times called Nothing Lasts Forever, "A ferocious, bloody, raging book so single-mindedly brilliant in concept and execution it should be read at a single sitting."
Two other Thorp novels, Rainbow Drive and Devlin, were adapted into TV movies.
Thorp died of a heart attack in Oxnard, California.
Early life
Thorp was born in Bronx, New York City. As a young college graduate, Thorp worked at a detective agency owned by his father. He would later teach literature and lecture on creative writing at schools and universities in New Jersey and California, and also wrote articles for newspapers and magazines.