Biography for
Elmore Leonard More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 October 1925, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Birth Name

Elmore John Leonard Jr.

Nickname

Dutch

Spouse

Christine Kent	(19 August 1993 - present) (filed for divorce)
Joan Leanne Lancaster	(15 September 1979 - 13 January 1993) (her death)
Beverly Claire Cline	(30 July 1949 - 24 May 1977) (divorced) 5 children

Trade Mark

Major characters in his novels tend to have a checkered past. Their criminal tendencies gives Leonard the option of having his central figures tap into negative or positive traits for surprising end twist.

Spends the first half of a novel setting up various unrelated characters, then in the second half has them all interact, providing completely unpredictable consequences

Trivia

Currently resides in suburban Oakland County, Michigan. Many of his novels are set in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs.

Secretly wrote his earliest novels while working at an advertising agency. He kept paper in a desk drawer and wrote with his arm stuck in the drawer. When somebody came by his desk, he closed the drawer. He took his writings home every night and rewrote them.

Refuses to use a word prosessor. He writes all his first drafts in longhand, then rewrites on a typewriter.

Appeared in American Express print ads in the late 1980s. The photo, by Annie Leibovitz, appears on the back of the hardcover version of "Freaky Deaky".

In nearly every film made from his books, there is a scene where at least one person gets locked in the trunk of a car.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 133, pp. 307-315. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

Universal bought the rights to his novel LaBrava before it was even released, but never produced it as a movie.

Personal Quotes

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

"If it sounds written, it's wrong" (his first rule of writing dialog)

All the adaptations of my books all sucked. This one got it right for once. (Taking about the adaptation of his book "Get Shorty")

If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.

Salary

Hombre (1967)	$10,000
The Tall T (1957)	$5,000