March 18, 2008–Arthur C. Clarke, the visionary sci-fi writer who co-penned the film 2001: A Space Odyssey with Stanley Kubrick and more than 100 books, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka. He was 90.
Clarke had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair.
He based “2001” on an earlier story “The Sentinel,” and then worked on the novel and the screenplay for “2001” simultaneously.
His sequel novel “2010” was made into a film directed by Peter Hyams. A film version of his book “Rendezvous with Rama” is reportedly in the works with director David Fincher.
Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956 to cultivate his interest in marine diving which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.
His TV programs “Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World” and “Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers” ran during the 1980s.
Clarke 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. He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.
