(Reuters) – Author Herman Wouk died on Friday at the age of 103, according to media reports. Six facts about him:
* Wouk, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, started at Columbia University at age 16 and graduated at 19. Before becoming a full-time author, he wrote jokes for comedians.
* During World War Two Wouk served aboard a U.S. Navy minesweeper in the South Pacific and was still in the Navy when he started work on his first book, “Aurora Dawn.” He set “The Caine Mutiny” aboard a minesweeper, drawing on his own experiences for the book.
* “The Caine Mutiny” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1952 and was made into a popular 1954 movie starring Humphrey Bogart as the paranoid, incompetent Captain Queeg. As a follow-up, Wouk wrote a play, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” which had three runs on Broadway.
* Wouk wrote the screenplay for the 16-hour TV mini-series version of his “The Winds of War” after the original screenwriter died.
* Wouk had an uncredited role in the television version of “The Winds of War,” playing the archbishop of Siena.
* His brother Victor, who died in 2005, built one of the first hybrid cars. He converted a 1972 Buick Skylark to run on gasoline and electricity.
Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Diane Craft
Source : Reuters
