Sheldon was born in Chicago on February 17, 1917. He began writing as a youngster and at the age of ten he made his first sale of a poem for $10. During the Depression, he worked at a variety of jobs and while attending Northwestern University he contributed short plays to drama groups.

At seventeen, he decided to try his luck in Hollywood. The only job he could find was as a reader of prospective film material at Universal Pictures for $22 a week. At night he wrote his own screenplays and was able to sell one called "South of Panama," to the studio for $250 in 1941.

During World War II, he served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. After the war he established a reputation as being a prolific writer in the New York theater community. At one point during this career he had three musicals on Broadway including a rewritten version of "The Merry Widow," "Jackpot" and "Dream with Music." Eventually he received a Tony award as part of the writing team for the Gwen Verdon hit "Redhead" which brought to the attention of Hollywood.

His first assignment after his return to Hollywood was The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, which won him an Academy Award for best original screenplay of 1947.

In his 1982 interview he described his years under contract with MGM as, "I never stopped working. One day Dore Schary (who was then production head) looked at a list of MGM projects currently under production and noted that I had written eight of them, more than three other writers put together. That afternoon, he made me a producer."

In the early 1960s when the movie industry was hurting because of television's popularity, Sheldon decided to make a switch. "I suppose I needed money," he remembered. "I met Patty Duke one day at lunch and stated producing "The Patty Duke Show," (that starred Duke playing two identical cousins). I did something nobody else in TV ever did at that time. For seven years, I wrote almost every single episode of the series."

His next series was "I Dream of Jeannie," which he also created as well as produced, lasted five seasons, 1965-1970. The show concerned an astronaut, Larry Hagman, who lands on a desert island and discovers a bottle containing a beautiful, 2,000-year-old genie, played by Barbara Eden, who accompanies him back to Florida and eventually marries her.

According to Sheldon it was "During the last year of "I Dream of Jeannie," I decided to try a novel. Each morning from 9 until noon, I had a secretary at the studio take all calls. I mean every single call. I wrote each morning or rather, dictated and then I faced the TV business." The result was "The Naked Face," which was scorned by book reviewers but sold 21,000 copies in hardcover. The novel scored even bigger in paperback, where it reportedly sold 3.1 million copies. Thereafter Sheldon name would continually be on the best-seller lists, often reigning on top for months at a time.

Sheldon's books including titles like "Rage of Angels," "The Other Side of Midnight," "Master of the Game" and "If Tomorrow Comes," provided him with his greatest fame. They featured cleverly plots with sensuality and a high degree of suspense, a device that kept fans from being unable to putting his books down.

In a 1982 interview Sheldon told of how he created his novels; "I try to write my books so the reader can't put them down. I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It's the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter."

Explaining why so many women bought his books, he once commented that: "I like to write about women, who are talented and capable, but most important, retain their femininity. Women have tremendous power, their femininity, because men can't do without it."

Sheldon had few fans among highbrow critics, whose reviews of his books were generally reproachful of both Sheldon and his readers. Sheldon however remained undeterred, promoting the novels and himself with warm enthusiasm.

A big, cheerful man, he bragged about his work habits. Unlike other novelists who toil over typewriters or computers, Sheldon would dictate fifty pages a day to a secretary or a tape machine. He would correct the pages the following day and dictate another fifty pages continuing the routine until he had between 1,200 to 1,500 pages. "Then I would do a complete rewrite 12 to 15 times," he said. "Sometimes I would spend a whole year rewriting."

Sheldon prided himself on the authenticity of his novels. During a 1987 interview he remarked that: "If I write about a place, I have been there. If I write about a meal in Indonesia, I have eaten there in that restaurant. I don't think you can fool the reader."

For his novel "Windmills of the Mind," that dealt with the CIA, he interviewed former CIA chief Richard Helms, traveled to Argentina and Romania, and spent a week in Junction City, Kansas where the book's heroine had lived.

After a career that had earned him a Tony, an Oscar and an Emmy (for "I Dream of Jeannie"), Sheldon declared that his work as a novelist was his best work. "I love writing books," he once commented. "Movies are a collaborative medium, and everyone is second-guessing you. When you do a novel you're on your own. It's a freedom that doesn't exist in any other medium."

Several of his novels became television miniseries, often with the Sheldon severing as producer.

He was married for more than 30 years to Jorja Curtright Sheldon, a stage and film actress who later became a prominent interior decorator. After her death in 1985 he married Alexandra Sheldon, a former child actress and advertising executive, in 1989.

Sheldon died January 30, 2007 of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California according with his wife, Alexandra, was by his side.

Along with his wife, Sheldon was survived by his daughter, author Mary Sheldon; his brother Richard and two grandchildren.

This is a story of intrigue and revenge. Tracy Whitney is young, beautiful and intelligent - and about to marry into wealth and glamour. Until, suddenly, she is betrayed, framed by a ruthless Mafia gang, abandoned by the man she loves. Only her ingenuity saves her and helps her fight back.

Bloodline

Sheldon's sweeping saga of greed and betrayal, sabotage and danger, and the ties that can kill...

Roffe and Sons is a family firm, an international empire filled with desperate, cash-hungry family members. At its head was one of the wealthiest men in the world, a man who has just died in a mysterious accident and left his only daughter, Elizabeth, in control of the company. Now as this intelligent, tough, and beautiful young woman dares to save -- not sell -- Roffe and Sons, she will have to outwit those who secretly want her power, and the unknown assassin who wants her life.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

The new novel that Sidney Sheldon's millions of fans all over the world have been waiting for. And, like his seventeen previous books, it is destined for a top place on bestseller lists everywhere.

In New York, Denver, Paris and Berlin, four people have died separately in apparent accidents. Two women -- the widows of two of the dead -- find themselves under ruthless attack and are drawn together in fear, confusion and for mutual protection. But are they being targeted because one of them is the prosecution witness at a famous criminal trial? Or is there a connection to the mystery behind their husband's deaths? Meanwhile, Tanner Kingsley,

Chief Executive of an international Think Tank created only seven years ago, is on the cusp of an amazing discovery which could alter the future of the world. If properly handled, the outcome of this could deliver unbelievable power into the company's hands. But are the mysterious deaths connected to this volatile secret? And can it be further protected?

Thrown together, the women could not be more different: Diane Stevens is a well-connected, affluent artist from the Upper East Side. Philadelphia neighbourhood with a new 'uncle' every month, believed she had at last found safety and contentment in Paris, married to a brilliant scientist.

Taut with suspense and vivid characterization, and with an unnervingly realistic premise that could alter our lives, ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK is Sheldon at the top of his form.

Memories of Midnight

In THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT, they played the ultimate game of love, lust, and death.

Now, in MEMORIES OF MIDNIGHT, the survivors meet to play one last time...

Shadowed by tragedy and burdened by amnesia, a beautiful woman desperately tries to return to reality. She is Catherine Douglas, destined to once again challenge the cruel, charismatic power of Constantin Demiris, the Greek shipping tycoon who murdered Catherine's husband. Now, in the glittering capitals and carefree playgrounds of post-war Europe, Demiris sets his deadly sights on Catherine -- and the single, treacherous secret whose shattering truth is known to her alone..

Rage of Angels

A worldwide bestseller first published in 1980, this novel tells the story of Jennifer Parker, a successful lawyer who is loved by two men, one a politician, the other, a mafia don. Other work by the author includes The Other Side of Midnight and If Tomorrow Comes.

Find all the best works of Sydney Sheldon here

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8104.The_Best_of_Sidney_Sheldon

The Writer Speaks: Sidney Sheldon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXAWLWdaRUQ

Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline - Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpyEAYExgiU

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci. She originally pursued a career in the legal profession. While attending the University of Perugia, she modeled on the side to earn money for school, and this led to her modeling career. In 1988, she moved to one of Europe's fashion centers, Milan, and joined Elite Model Management. Although enjoying great success as a model, she made her acting debut on television in 1990, and her American film debut in Bram Stoker's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Her role in the French thriller The Apartment (1996), shot her to stardom as she won the French equivalent of an Oscar nomination. Other credits include Malèna (2000), Under Suspicion (2000) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001).

Know more about Monica !!!

She appeared in a black and white TV commercial for Dolce & Gabbana. The director was Giuseppe Tornatore, who also directed her in the movie Malèna (2000).
Is fluent in Italian, English, French, Persian and Spanish. She also speaks a little Portuguese that she learned when she moved to Rio de Janeiro in 2013.
Daughter-in-law of Jean-Pierre Cassel.
Made a nude calendar for the Italian magazine Max in 1998 and another one for the Italian magazine GQ in 2000.
Was originally cast as Mina Harker in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) but had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict. The role then went to Peta Wilson.
Studied jurisprudence for a short time.
Gave birth to her 1st child at age 39, a daughter Deva Cassel on September 12, 2004. Child's father is her now estranged 2nd husband, Vincent Cassel.
She was elected the most beautiful woman in the world by French viewers on a television show "La Plus belle femme du monde" on November 8, 2004.
Also a successful fashion model represented by Elite and Storm Model Management.
Her favourite poem is "A Silvia" by Giacomo Leopardi.
Has her lookalike puppet on the French comedy show Les guignols de l'info (1988).
Ranked #6 on Maxim magazine's Hot 50 Women of 1999 list.
Ranked #9 on Maxim magazine's Hot 100 Women of 2002 list.
Ranked #1 in Ask men's top 99 "most desirable" women of 2002.
Is an Italian citizen.
Favorite movie is A Special Day (1977) by Ettore Scola.
Her role as Chantal Hearst in Under Suspicion (2000) was held by Romy Schneider in the original film Garde à vue (1981).
Owns an apartment in London, England.
Doesn't always live with her husband Vincent Cassel, for avoiding routine, the two live in separate apartments. she lives most of the time in Rome and he lives in Paris.
Bellucci is a typical surname from center Italy, it comes from the Latin word "Bellutus", and has the same root as surnames like Belluto, Belluti, Belluzzo, Belluccio, or the aristocratic surname of Belluzzi.
She speaks to her daughter Deva Cassel in Italian.
She has said in an interview that Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale have inspired her acting career.
Ranked #89 in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005" special supplement.
Is a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.
Is a supporter of the Italian football team.
Has a wax statue in the Grevin Museum in Paris.
Her parents are Luigi Bellucci and Maria Gustinelli.
She's an only child.
Ranked #5 on E! Entertainment Networks list of "101 Sexiest Celebrity Bodies" list of 2006.
Attended University of Perugia.
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#35) (2007).
Best friends with Ilaria D'Amico.
Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 45, a daughter Léonie Cassel on May 21, 2010. Child's father is her now estranged 2nd husband, Vincent Cassel.
Was four months pregnant with her daughter Léonie when she completed filming The Whistleblower (2010).
Returned to work five months after giving birth to her daughter Deva in order to begin filming How Much Do You Love Me? (2005).
Returned to work four months after giving birth to her daughter Léonie in order to begin filming The Ages of Love (2011).
Sister-in-law of Rockin' Squat. Stepsister-in-law of Cécile Cassel.
Shares birthday with fellow actresses Deborah Kerr, Angie Dickinson, Marion Cotillard and actor Ezra Miller.
Separated from her second husband of 14 years Vincent Cassel. [August 2013]
Appearing in the James Bond movie Spectre (2015) as "Lucia Sciarra" at age 51 she becomes the oldest actress to play a Bond Girl. Honor Blackman at age 39 had previously been the oldest actress to play a Bond Girl with her role as "Pussy Galore" in Goldfinger (1964). However, Blackman is still the oldest actress ever to play a lead Bond girl, since Bellucci's role is only a brief cameo.
Ranked as having one of the "Most Beautiful Famous Faces" by TC Candler's list of the "100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World" for 18 consecutive years (1999-2016). Ranked #2 in 2004.

Personal Quotes


My body is so important to me... my face, my arms, my legs, my hands, my eyes, everything. I use everything I have.
When I eat with my friends, it is a moment of real pleasure, when I really enjoy my life.
I come from a Catholic religion, but I'm not Catholic.
[on her daughter Deva] I didn't have familiarity with children. I'm learning day after day, with her. And what impress me the most is that she, Deva, is an individual person. But in miniature, she seems to be a special effect.
After love, the man sleeps, while the woman reflects.
Beauty becomes alive and interesting when it's habited.
Being an actress is the sublimation of feminity.
The human intelligence has progressed at the technological level; not a the level of feelings.
It is a handicap if you're stupid, but not if you are intelligent and know how to use your beauty.
I feel fine and comfortable with myself, but not because I'm beautiful. I know many beautiful people and their lives are just so terrible. They feel so uncomfortable with themselves. Being comfortable is not about what you look like, but how you feel. I'm a lucky person because I've been loved a lot. I have a great family.
Acting is not words. Holly Hunter didn't speak in The Piano (1993) and she won an Oscar.
I live in Paris but I feel I am a daughter of Europe.
When I'll be old, I'd rather watch my children than my films.
My career, at the moment, is very exciting, but love comes first because it balances me.
I listen to "young" music, the one from my age. I adore soul, rap and funky.
[on her husband's support when Irreversible (2002) was released] Vincent was so incredible, so sweet. When we went to Cannes for the film, you know the moment when I come out from the tunnel and we see me for the first time completely with blood all over, he was crying. I said, "Vincent, come on. It's just a movie. We know it's not real."
As a European, I need to stay in Europe and I make Italian movies, French movies. Then to come to America is something interesting for me.
[on reality television] I think this is something that touches every country - America, Italy, France, England, all over. You will see all these people, they don't know how to sing, they don't know how to dance, and still they become famous. You know, just celebrities. And I think this is a very dangerous process.
This is what I like about America, because you have very big budget movie, and also independent movies, so you have many different choices. But I know that I'm European... Being European, it is not easy to find the right project, because you may look different, you sound different, and you have to find the right character.
[on How Much Do You Love Me? (2005)] As a woman I am so curious about prostitutes because of the idea that they know men better than you. Also, it's such a strange way to live. But at the same time there are prostitutes who just want to be prostitutes, and this is this woman, nobody pushed her to do it. She's a prostitute because she wants to be a prostitute. It's her philosophy of life.
I'm not scared by nudity, because for me, nothing is more beautiful than a body. You can have such an amazing emotion from a body. In Irreversible (2002), I treated my body like it was an object and it's great when you can have this kind of relation with your body, it's a part of your job, an object you can work with. When you can have this kind of freedom it's the moment where you can give your best as an actress.
In 10 years, I've done so many things. In the beginning I didn't know if I was still a model, if I was an actress. I knew I wanted to be an actress, but it was so difficult to be believed. Now things are going better and better and the proposals I have are much more interesting than five years ago. It's like getting older is getting better.
Maybe the reason I work a lot is because each director thinks that I'll be better with him. Maybe the moment where I'll be completely accepted I won't work any more.
[on why she will not move to Hollywood to further her film career]: I could never live there. They are obsessed with youth and beauty even more than us. There is this thing in America where actresses reach 40 and go mad. The film industry wants all these young people. They also like a different sort of woman (to me). I will never be skinny. I also had a child a year ago, and I have been lazy. I love to eat. Who cares? I am natural.
I am at a stage in my life where if I don't go out, I don't feel I'm missing something. I get bored surrounded by people smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol. And I'm not so interested now in going to premieres or being photographed on the red carpet. I want to be with my daughter.
I am an agnostic, even though I respect and am interested in all religions. If there's something I believe in, it's a mysterious energy; the one that fills the oceans during tides, the one that unites nature and beings.
I know that beauty invites a certain curiosity. But, as Oscar Wilde said, beauty is just five minutes long if you don't have anything else to sustain that curiosity. I don't think that I would have made this kind of career if I were just beautiful. Directors don't call you for your beauty but for your talent.

Malèna is about the peril of a beauty through the eyes of a 12 year old kid named Renato. He experiences three things on the same day, beginning of war, getting a bike and sees the arrival of Malèna in town. Through his eyes, we see the curse of beauty and loneliness of Malena, whose husband is presumed to be dead, and through his soul we see his undying love for her. Written by Paul

Late at night, in an unnamed U.S. city, a solitary man sits at a bus stop. A pregnant woman runs by, pursued by a man with a gun. With reluctance, the man at the bus stop rescues her and assists with the baby's delivery, while additional pursuers fire at them, including the gang's particularly nasty leader, an intuitive man named Hertz. Our hero, known only as Smith, determines to save the child and find out why Hertz wants the baby dead. At a local bordello, he tries to employ a lactating hooker to watch the child, but things quickly escalate, and this makeshift family is soon on the run. Heavy metal music calms the baby. Why? A laboratory, gun factory, and presidential campaign all figure in Smith's quest for the child's safe deliverance.

Six months after the events depicted in The Matrix, Neo has proved to be a good omen for the free humans, as more and more humans are being freed from the matrix and brought to Zion, the one and only stronghold of the Resistance. Neo himself has discovered his superpowers including super speed, ability to see the codes of the things inside the matrix, and a certain degree of precognition. But a nasty piece of news hits the human resistance: 250,000 machine sentinels are digging to Zion and would reach them in 72 hours. As Zion prepares for the ultimate war, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are advised by the Oracle to find the Keymaker who would help them reach the Source. Meanwhile Neo's recurrent dreams depicting Trinity's death have got him worried and as if it was not enough, Agent Smith has somehow escaped deletion, has become more powerful than before and has chosen Neo as his next target.