Oscar winner, prolific novelist and American icon Sidney Sheldon dies

SIDNEY Sheldon, an Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter who went on to become one of the world’s most prolific novelists, died in California on Tuesday at the age of 89, a publicist said.

Mr Sheldon died of complications from pneumonia at the Eisenhower Medical Centre in Rancho Mirage, near his Palm Springs home, said Sean Rossall, publicist at Warren Cowan and Associates.

Mr Sheldon became an American icon in the 1970s with novels like The Other Side of Midnight and Bloodline, bestsellers spun out of international intrigue and the sexual liberation of the era. Strong women were often the main characters.