Michael Crichton Filmography

Born:: October 23, 1942 in Chicago, IL
Occupation:: Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter, Book Author
Birth name:: John Michael Crichton
Biography:: Not unlike John Grisham, Chicago-born author-turned-director/screenwriter Michael Crichton took current events - often with a wealth of "authenticating" detail - and melded them with meticulously-constructed, gripping narratives that made him a white-hot commodity and a veritable one-man industry...Read More

Current News:: Family: Michael Crichton dies of cancer
Nov. 5, 2008 3:01 PM ET (AP)

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The Andromeda Strain

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Benjamin Bratt, Eric McCormack, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim, Viola Davis

Synopsis: Adapted from the best-selling novel by author Michael Crichton, director Mikael Salomon's made for television mini-series follows a group of specialized scientists as they race to cure a fast-spreading plague. A U.S. military satellite has crashed near a small Utah town, unleashing a deadly Read More

2008
The Man Who Shot Chinatown: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo [D]

Actors: Sid Levin, Andy Sidaris, Haskell Wexler, William Friedkin, Georgiana M. Alonzo

Synopsis: Axel Schill's non-fiction work The Man Who Shot Chinatown: The Life and Work of John A. Alonzo joins Light Keeps Me Company, Tell Them Who You Are, and other recent documentaries in paying homage to one of the world's great cinematographers. Active from the early 1960s until just before his death Read More

2007
Timeline

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly, David Thewlis

Synopsis: Directing his first film since 1998's Lethal Weapon 4, Richard Donner helmed this big-budget adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. Featuring a script by first-time screenwriter George Nolfi, Timeline begins in France in the near future. A group of students from Yale are there Read More

11/26/03
The 13th Warrior

Crew: Book Author, Producer

Actors: Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Dennis Storhoi, Vladimir Kulich, Omar Sharif

Synopsis: A cultured diplomat joins a band of savage warriors in time to meet an even more fearsome enemy in this historical adventure. In 922 A.D., Ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) is a Muslim emissary from Baghdad en route to meet with the King of Saqaliba when he is captured by a gang of Vikings. While Ibn Read More

8/27/99
Sphere

Crew: Book Author, Producer

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber

Synopsis: Barry Levinson directed this $100+ million adaptation of Michael Crichton's science fiction novel about the investigation of a half-mile-long spacecraft sitting on the South Pacific ocean floor. Government functionary Barnes (Peter Coyote) assembles a crack scientific team -- psychologist Dr. Read More

1998
The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Vince Vaughn, Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite

Synopsis: Just when you'd think that scientists would realize dinosaurs and humans don't mix, along comes The Lost World: Jurassic Park to prove you wrong. In this sequel, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) summons chaos theorist and onetime colleague Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to his home with some Read More

1997
Twister

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Lois Smith

Synopsis: Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt and Carey Elwes may be billed as the stars of Twister, but the film's real attractions are the cyclones themselves. Best experienced in a theater, the nail-biting, blow-the-audience-out-of-their-seats computer generated graphics, cutting edge sound and other special effects Read More

1996
Congo

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Heslov

Synopsis: Good gorillas meet bad gorillas while human beings search for treasure in this jungle advnture saga. R.B. Travis (Joe Don Baker) is the ruthless head of Travi-Com, a telecommunications firm on the cusp of a major breakthrough in laser communications technology. However, Travis needs diamonds to Read More

1995
ER: Pilot

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Originally telecast as a two-hour special, the first episode of ER has since been divided into a two-parter for syndication. In part one, young and inexperienced third-year med student John Carter (Noah Wyle) reports for work at the emergency room of Chicago's County General Hospital. During a Read More

1994
Disclosure

Crew: Book Author, Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland, Caroline Goodall, Dylan Baker

Synopsis: Michael Douglas runs afoul of a treacherous supervisor in this film version of Michael Crichton's novel. Douglas plays Tom Sanders, an executive at DigiCom, a leading computer software firm. DigiCom is about to launch a new virtual reality-based data storage system that is expected to Read More

1994
ER [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer, Show Creator

Synopsis: Created by novelist Michael Crichton and reportedly based on his own experiences as a medical student, the NBC hospital drama ER debuted September 19, 1994, directly opposite the similar CBS endeavor Chicago Hope. Though many critics thought that Chicago Hope had a better chance for survival than Read More

1994
Rising Sun

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Kevin Anderson

Synopsis: When Michael Crichton wrote his best-selling thriller Rising Sun, he wrote the character of hero John Connor with Sean Connery in mind. For Philip Kaufman's film version of the novel, Sean Connery, needless to say, fits seamlessly into the role of a legendary police detective who is an expert in Read More

1993
Jurassic Park

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck

Synopsis: Steven Spielberg's phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by state-of-the-art special effects from the team of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri from George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic. The film follows two dinosaur experts -- Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Read More

1993
Physical Evidence

Crew: Director

Actors: Burt Reynolds, Theresa Russell, Ned Beatty, Kay Lenz, Ted McGinley

Synopsis: Though this police and courtroom drama did not do well at the box-office, some reviewers thought that the lead performances by Burt Reynolds and Theresa Russell were first-rate. Joe Paris (Reynolds) is a policeman suspended from active duty. He awakens from an alcoholic binge to discover that he Read More

1/27/89
Runaway

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley, Stan Shaw

Synopsis: Best-selling author Michael Crichton wrote and directed this science fiction thriller that combined the influences of Blade Runner (1982), comic books, and Crichton's ongoing fascination with the dangers of high technology. Tom Selleck stars as Sergeant Jack Ramsey, a single father in the near Read More

1984
Looker

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey, Leigh Taylor-Young, Dorian Harewood, Tim Rossovich

Synopsis: This fun, silly thriller written and directed by Michael Crichton manages to combine the dramatic murders of beautiful models, a secret conspiracy to use TV commercials for mind-control, and an unusual seeing-eye device which makes the wearer invisible. Plastic surgeon Larry Roberts (Albert Read More

1981
The Great Train Robbery

Crew: Book Author, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down, Wayne Sleep, Michael Elphick, Malcolm Terris

Synopsis: Not a remake of the landmark 1903 Edwin S. Porter film, The Great Train Robbery is a dramatization of the famous first hold-up of a moving train in 1855 England. The conspirators in this undertaking are Edward Pierce (Sean Connery), Agar (Donald Sutherland) and Clean Willy (Wayne Sleep). Pierce is Read More

1979
Coma

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark

Synopsis: A feisty, feminist intern uncovers a medical conspiracy in this icy thriller about mysterious goings-on at Boston Memorial Hospital. When her best friend and aerobics partner, Nancy Greenly (Lois Chiles), emerges in a vegetative state from a routine abortion, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) Read More

2/1/78
The Terminal Man

Crew: Book Author

Actors: George Segal

Synopsis: Based on a novel by Michael Crichton, Terminal Man is a sci-fi thriller about a scientist who decides to be the lab rat in an experimental surgery to control his violent tendencies. During the surgical procedure, a miniature computer is implanted in his head. Unfortunately, the mechanism Read More

1974
Westworld

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Alan Oppenheimer, Victoria Shaw

Synopsis: Welcome to Westworld, where nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong....Writer/director Michael Crichton has concocted a futuristic "Disneyland for adults", a remote resort island where, for a hefty fee, one can indulge in one's wildest fantasies. Businessmen James Brolin and Richard Benjamin Read More

1973
Extreme Close-Up

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: A TV reporter becomes obsessed with a story about voyeurism in this film also known as Sex Through a Window. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

1973
Pursuit

Crew: Book Author, Director

Actors: Ben Gazzara

Synopsis: In this thriller, adapted from the novel Binary by John Lange and directed by Michael Crichton, a federal agent played by Ben Gazzara must stop a madman before he can unleash a toxic nerve gas upon an unwitting political convention. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

1972
The Carey Treatment

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Robie Porter, Melissa Torme-March, James Coburn, Jennifer O'Neill, Pat Hingle, Skye Aubrey, Elizabeth Allen

Synopsis: Blake Edwards directed this murder mystery set against the backdrop of a busy metropolitan hospital. Dr. Peter Carey (James Coburn) is a pathologist who has signed on to work with Dr. J.D. Randall (Dan O'Herlihy) at a prominent hospital in Boston. When Randall's daughter Karen (Melissa Read More

1972
Dealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues

Crew: Book Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Charles Durning, Barbara Hershey, Buzzy Linhart, John Lithgow, Robert F. Lyons, Demond Wilson

Synopsis: Years before Coma, Jurassic Park, and Twister made him a household name, Michael Crichton co-wrote this amiable drug-oriented comedy, based on a novel Crichton co-authored with his brother Douglas under the pen name Michael Douglas. Peter (Robert F. Lyons) is a shaggy but straightlaced Harvard law Read More

1972
The Andromeda Strain

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid, Paula Kelly

Synopsis: The "Andromeda Strain" is a deadly extraterrestrial virus. It is brought to Earth when a research satellite crashes near a tiny Arizona town. Everyone in the community dies within days, except for a baby and an "insulated" drunkard. Recruited from labs all over North America, doctors Charles Read More

1971