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Sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90
Longtime Sri Lanka resident wrote more than 100 books, including ‘2001’

Breaking news
MSNBC staff and news service reports
updated 24 minutes ago

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. local time after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving — which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space. “I’m perfectly operational underwater,” he once said.

Clarke's best-known novel, "2001: A Space Odyssey," became the basis of the 1968 film of the same name, directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film and the book elevated the plot's mentally unbalanced computer, HAL 9000, into the pantheon of great fictional characters.

Three "2001" book sequels followed, and one of them — "2010" — was made into a movie as well.

In addition to the "2001" series, Clarke's best-known works included "Childhood's End" and "Rendezvous With Rama." The latter novel is reportedly being adapted for film, with actor Morgan Freeman as producer and star.

Clarke was regarded as a technological seer as well as a science-fiction writer. He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

Another novel of his, titled "The Fountains of Paradise," sparked the real-world efforts to build a space elevator from Earth to orbit.

He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as a commentator on NASA's Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.

Clarke was born in 1917 in the English coastal town of Minehead, the eldest of four children. Although he spent his early years in Britain, Sri Lanka was his adopted home. On the occasion of his 90th birthday last December, one of Clarke's three wishes was to see lasting peace in the island nation, which has been divided by ethnic conflict.

Clarke also wished that the world would embrace cleaner energy resources — and that extraterrestrial beings would "call us or give us a sign."

"We have no way of guessing when this might happen," Clarke said in his birthday speech. "I hope sooner rather than later."

This report includes information from The Associated Press and msnbc.com. Check back for updates on this breaking-news story.
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive

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Talk about a double-whammy in terms of tragedy for the film industry today. I was still thinking about Anthony Minghella (director of The English Patient) and the tragic circumstances of his death. Now this. Wow. 2001: A Space Odyssey made Clarke's name well known with the general public. The enduring nature of that classic film will also keep his memory alive for generations to come.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-18-2008, 06:41 PM:
 
I really don't know anything about the author, but I do know that I absolutely hate 2001 the movie. Horrible, horrible waste of time.
 

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Posted by Tom Mundell (Member # 4555) on 03-18-2008, 08:07 PM:
 


I'm a big fan of Arthur C. Clarke; I loved the movie 2001, and have read almost all of his books. "The Songs of Distant Earth" is probably one of my all time favourite books, I'm also particularly fond of "The Fountains of Paradise" and "A Fall of Moondust".
 

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Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 03-18-2008, 08:32 PM:
 
Childhood's End is among my favorites. The four 2001 books and the four Rama books were also very good. Now I'm looking forward to the Morgan Freeman project.

The latest series he wrote with Stephen Baxter just "concluded" with its third book, currently in hardcover. The jacket says "The conclusion to ...", yet there's enough unanswered plot to warrant a fourth book, which I fully expect Baxter to write!

Clarke lived long and wrote/contributed so much to the genre, it's amazing to know he was still around. But now he'll be missed.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-18-2008, 11:05 PM:
 
Being in the presence of Arthur has been a fun journey for many of us. His uniqueness will be missed by all of us.

Mark
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-19-2008, 02:19 AM:
 
The article mentioned breathing problems...I bet my bottom dollar this had to be pnumonia. It's real easy to get when one is in a frail condition, and being 90 years old...Yep.
 

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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 03-19-2008, 02:59 AM:
 
I wonder if a bit of him will be shot into space like James Doohan from Star Trek.
 

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Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 03-19-2008, 06:44 AM:
 
Arthur Clarke pioneered the concept of a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. A satellite parked at a high altitude such that it's orbital speed matches the speed of a fixed point on earth. Thanks to him we have stuff like satellite TV, etc.
 

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Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 03-19-2008, 10:11 AM:
 
. . . and then he made the mistake of failing to patent the idea, losing out on what he once estimated to be nearly a billion dollars. He once claimed in an article that a patent attorney dissuaded him from the idea, calling the whole idea of satellites ludicrous.

As the last living member of science fiction’s so-called “Big 3” (Azimov and Heinlien being the other two), I’m sorry to hear he’s gone. I first started reading SF in the late fifties, back when my hometown library issued me a “juvenile card” (J66640 was my number, how’s that for memory). I started out on Clarke’s Pebble in the Sky, The City and the Stars and Prelude to Space, along with Heinlien’s Rocketship Galieo, The Star Beast, Podakyne of Mars and Citizen of the Galaxy, and then went on to read Andre Norton, James Blish, Robert Sliverburg, Ray Bradbury and many more before being completely blown away by 2001. All these writers were my childhood literary heroes, and they provided a great escape for a kid growing up in small-town Cold War America.
 

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Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 03-19-2008, 03:23 PM:
 
"I'm sorry, Dave, I just can't do that!"

Quoted many times by my 747-400, Airbus, and Embrarer 175 pilot friends. These are "automated" fly-by-wire aircraft. Louis
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-19-2008, 04:42 PM:
 
Actually Louis... I thought the world had already credited Howard Hughes for developing fly by wire(among other things).

Mark
 

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Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 03-19-2008, 04:46 PM:
 
Film-techrs should read Clarke's short story "History Lesson".
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-19-2008, 05:17 PM:
 
Arthur Clarke is another person I thought was already dead. This is happening a lot these days.

"2001" is one of the many "acclaimed" movies that I've never gotten a chance to see. Based on Joe's comment above, I'd probably think it was great!
 

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Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 03-19-2008, 09:43 PM:
 
It's been a long, long time since I've seen 2001 the film. But as I recall, it's very slow in many parts, and doesn't explain too much of the weird stuff going on. I can sympathize with the position that it's dull and a waste of time. I don't recall being enthralled.

The book, however, can and does deliver a richer explanation and narrative, especially as the follow-up books revisit and elaborate.

My friend didn't like the film because of such sequences as "the guy runs around the spaceship for hours, and they shot every second of it", and things like that. Well, space travel is a long and arduous experience. Kubrick reflected that.
 

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Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 03-19-2008, 10:13 PM:
 

quote: Brian Michael Weidemann

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...long time since I've seen 2001 the film. But as I recall, it's very slow in many parts...

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I have yet to stay awake to watch that film.

I've only fell asleep in a theatre for 2 films everytime I tried to watch them... that was one, the other was "Lawnmower Man"...YAWN!
 

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Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 03-19-2008, 11:33 PM:
 
Yeah, sorry to hear about Clarke; he seemed like a scientist but with a down to earth philosophy.

Two things about '2001' ... first, you almost have to read the book to get the most out of the story; some explanations are simply not in the film.

Secondly, while it seems a bit dull today, you have to consider the time it was made. At the time, it was among the very few films that took a 'serious' look at sci-fi, actually trying to get technical facts correct while telling a made up story.
 

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Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 03-19-2008, 11:37 PM:
 
He was the first Star-Child. 2001 changed my way of seeing and looking at things.

I saw it opening week at the Uptown in DC. I went to see it again the next night. I was 22 years old. It was the first movie I saw on acid.

Thank you Mr. Clarke.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-20-2008, 01:00 AM:
 
Jim,
Did you take the hit on the first viewing or the second viewing?
 

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Posted by Brian Michael Weidemann (Member # 2243) on 03-20-2008, 03:02 AM:
 
All of Clarke's work was "serious" sci-fi. Most of the good, classic sci-fi was serious, in that, yes, they tried to keep sets of scientific facts straight. It's a genre that pioneers ideas. Clarke never seemed to be stretching reality. He made it seem very plausible, because it built rationally on science; it was well grounded. In fantasy books, I find myself unable to get into a story because this or that "wouldn't happen". Clarke's stories, for me, were always along the "that could and probably WOULD happen", given technological premises that were themselves plausible.

The core of Jupiter, after all, just may be pure diamond.
 

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Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 03-20-2008, 03:44 AM:
 
Big Sci-fi fan, with a wall of books.
Lately was impressed with a co-written book called "The Trigger"
Fall of Moondust was great fiction, applied with a butt load of technical knowledge
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 03-20-2008, 05:01 AM:
 
October of 1968: "2001" was the first 70mm film that I experienced at the Villa in SLC, Utah - and the beginning of my many visits to the Villa.

True, after seeing the movie, had to read the book to get the jest of what A.C. Clark wrote. Then after reading the novel, had to see the film again to really appreciate what Kubrick put together.
 

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Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 03-20-2008, 12:30 PM:
 

quote: James Westbrook

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Jim,
Did you take the hit on the first viewing or the second viewing?

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Yes.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-20-2008, 03:30 PM:
 

 

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Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 03-20-2008, 06:38 PM:
 
"Rendezvous with Rama" was my first experience with his writing. A great piece of sci-fi literature. Fully thought through by the author and all Newtonian laws of physics were adhered to.
 

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