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Michael listed Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock and his main influences on his career.
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Michael met with President Bush to discuss global warming after his book "State of Fear" was released.
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Michael was a close friend of artist Jasper John, his book "Jasper Johns" was a collection of his works. In 1977 Michael organized a retrospective of his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Michael was a collector of contemporary art.
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Michael had an uncredited role in the 1971 film adaptation of his book "The Andromeda Strain". It was the only time he appeared on screen not as himself.
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Michael wrote the screenplay to the movie "Twister" with his then wife, Anne-Marie Martin.
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Michael was inspired to write the movie "Westworld" by seeing the animatronic characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at a trip to Disneyworld.
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In 2006 Michael received The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Journalism Award for his book "State of Fear".
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In 1992 Michael was named one of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People" by People magazine.
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Michael wrote 15 Fictional Novels: "The Andromeda Strain", 1969
"The Terminal Man", 1972
"The Great Train Robbery", 1975
"Eaters of The Dead", 1976
"Congo", 1980
"Sphere",1987
"Jurassic Park", 1990
"Rising Sun", 1992
"Disclosure", 1994
"The Lost World", 1995
"Airframe", 1996
"Timeline", 1999
"Prey", 2002
"State of Fear", 2004
"Next", 2006
And 4 Non-Fiction ones:
"Five Patients: The Hospital Explained", 1970
"Jasper Johns", 1977
"Electronic Life", 1983
"Travels", 1988
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Michael has been on the Board of Trustees for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art since 2006.
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In 2002 Michael had a newly discovered ankylosaur, named for him, it is called Crichtonsaurus bohlini.
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Michael was a guest lecturer at Cambridge Universtiy in England giving a lecture on anthropology in 1965. He was also a visiting writer at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1988.
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Michael has twice won a Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, in 1968 for "A Case of Need" and in 1980 for "The Great Train Robbery".
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Michael was married 5 times;
to Joan Radam from 1965 – 1970,
to Kathy St. John from December 31, 1978 to 1980,
to Suzanne Childs from October 22, 1981 to ?, to Anne-Marie Martin from 1987 – 2002, they had one daughter, Taylor
to Sherri Alexander from 2005 to his death in Nov 2008.
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At Roslyn High School in New York, Michael played basketball.
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In 1995 Michael was nominated for a Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama Series Emmy Award for ER for "The Pilot".
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In 1971 a young director named Steven Spielberg was assigned to give Michael a tour of Universal Studios when his book "The Andromeda Strain" was being made into a movie.
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Michael won an Association of American Medical Writers award for his book "Five Patients".
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When writing Michael eats the same thing for lunch every day, it helps him concentrate on the project.
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In 1994 Michael won a Saturn Award for Best Writing for the screenplay of "Jurassic Park"; he shares the award with David Koepp.
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Michael tried to get producers interested in doing ER in 1970, calling it E.W.: Emergency Ward at that time. The project the script sat for over 20 years until Steven Spielberg found out about it, and it was suggested it would make a better TV series then movie.
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Michael's parents are John Henderson Crichton and Zula Miller Crichton, his father was a journalist. He has 3 siblings; two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas.
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Michael's books have been translated into a myriad of different languages; thirty-six in all.
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Thirteen of Michael's novels have been translated into films [2007].
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Michael conducted his postdoctoral studies at Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
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Michael graduated summa cum laude [with highest honor] from Harvard College.
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Michael was 6'9" (2.06m) tall.
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Michael originally published his novels under two pen names: Jeffrey Hudson and John Lange. Both names were created to poke fun at his above average height. Lange is a German surname that means "tall" and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous dwarf in the 17th century.
