Arthur Hailey
| Arthur Hailey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
April 5, 1920 Luton, Bedfordshire, England |
| Died | November 24, 2004 (aged 84) Lyford Cay, New Providence, Bahamas |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | British-Canadian |
| Notable works |
Hotel (1965) Airport (1968) |
| Spouses | Joan Fishwick (1944-1950; div.) Sheila Dunlop (1951-2004; his death) |
| Children | 6 |
Arthur Hailey (April 5, 1920 – November 24, 2004) was a British-Canadian novelist whose plot-driven storylines were set against the backdrops of various industries. His meticulously-researched books, which include such best sellers as Hotel (1965), Airport (1968), Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975), and Overload (1979), have sold 170 million copies in 38 languages.
Arthur Frederick Hailey was born on April 5, 1920, in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, the only child of George Wellington Hailey, a factory worker, and Elsie Wright Hailey. An avid reader, Hailey began to write poems, plays and stories at a young age. He once said, "My mother left me off chores so I could write." Elsie encouraged her son to learn typing and shorthand so that he might become a clerk instead of a factory worker.
At fourteen, Hailey failed to win a scholarship which would have enabled him to continue his schooling. From 1934 to 1939 he was an office boy and clerk in London. In He joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, and served as a pilot during World War II, eventually rising to the rank of flight lieutenant. In 1947, unhappy with the post-war Labour government, he emigrated to Canada, becoming a dual citizen. Settling in Toronto, he held a variety of jobs, in such fields as real estate, sales, and advertising. He was editor of a trade magazine called Bus and Truck Transport. During these years, he continued to write.
Hailey's professional writing career began in 1955 with a script called Flight into Danger, which was purchased by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and telecast on April 3, 1956. This story of a plane flight in jeopardy after its crew is incapacitated was "the smash hit of the season," won enormous acclaim, and was broadcast internationally. It was adapted as a novel by "John Castle" (a pseudonym for Ronald Payne and John Garrod), with Hailey credited as co-author; it was published by Britain's Souvenir Press in 1958 under its original title, but renamed Runway Zero-Eight (Doubleday) for its 1959 American publication. The story was filmed in 1957 as Zero Hour! (Paramount), and for television in 1971 as Terror in the Sky. Perhaps most famously, it also served as the basis for Paramount's 1980 parody Airplane!.
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