King Richard

Richard Matheson has died.  He's one of those guys who wrote so much it's hard to know where to start.  He mostly worked in sci-fi and horror, but his stuff was in many media--short stories, novels, TV and movies, to name the most obvious.

His first published story was "Born Of Man And Woman," which was voted one of the greateste sf stories ever.  I read it as a kid and found it immensely creepy.  It still holds up.

A lot of his novels were made into movies--The Shrinking Man (when he adapted it for film they added "Incredible" to the title), What Dreams May Come and several others.  His I Am Legend has been made into (at least) three films--The Last Man On Earth, The Omega Man and, most recently, Will Smith's big hit of the same name.



A lot of his short stories were turned into TV episodes, including a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes, such as "The Doll," "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" and "Little Girl Lost."  He also wrote a lot of TV--it may be what he's best remembered for--including 16 episodes of Twilight Zone.