Best-selling author Michael Crichton, who wrote such novels as “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park” and created the popular long-running NBC TV drama “ER,” has died unexpectedly of cancer at age 66.

Crichton, a medical doctor turned novelist and filmmaker whose books have sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles after what his family described as a “courageous and private battle against cancer.”

Steven Spielberg, who directed “Jurassic Park” said:

“Michael’s talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of ‘Jurassic Park. He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the Earth. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.”

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