X-Message-Number: 16275
Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 11:04:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: Douglas Adams dies

extropians-digest         Sunday, May 13 2001         Volume 06 : Number 132
From: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1326000/1326657.stm

Author Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has 
died suddenly aged 49. 
Mr Adams died on Friday morning in Santa Barbara, California, following a 
heart attack, said his spokeswoman Sophie Astin. 

Adams's novel was turned into a BBC series 
The author became a household name when the cult science fiction novel was 
turned into a BBC TV series. 
Adams was born in Cambridge in 1952 and educated in Essex before returning to 
Cambridge to study at St John's College. 
His career included work as a radio and television writer and producer before 
his life was changed by the publication of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the 
Galaxy in 1979. 

Film

The satirical tale chronicled the journey of alien Ford Prefect and his human 
companion Arthur Dent throughout the universe after the destruction of Earth. 

It centred around the search for an answer to life, the universe, and 
everything - which turned out to be 42. 

Arthur Dent and Slartibartfast became cult figures
 
The novel went on to sell more than 14 million copies worldwide and was 
followed by the sequels The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the 
Universe and Everything and So Long and Thanks For All the Fish. 

In recent years the author had been working on a Hitchhiker's Guide movie. 

There was much speculation about who would play Arthur Dent, with Hugh 
Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carrey, Ben Affleck and even Bruce Willis said to 
be in the running. 

Adams married Jane Belson in 1991 and had a daughter, Polly, in 1994. 

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