Famed author and screenwriter Elmore Leonard has died at the age of 87, the result of complications following a stroke. Some of his most famous works include Get Shorty, Out of Sight, 3:10 to Yuma, Hombre, and the film Jackie Brown.
Leonard was born in New Orleans, but moved to Detroit when he was young. He initially wrote westerns, but it was his gritty crime and suspense thrillers that would become his staple. His novels were populated by anti-heroes and lowlifes, and frequently blurred the lines between the good and bad guys. His dialogue was often witty, caustic – and brutally realistic.
Leonard spent three years in the navy in WWII, graduated from the University of Detroit in 1950. He wrote pulp westerns in the 1950s, before gravitating to crime novels in the 1960s.
In 2008, Leonard won the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Award for outstanding achievement in American literature. In 2012, he was awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.