Warren Murphy, American author, died at 81

  Dead Famous

Warren Murphy, born on September 13, 1933 in Jersey City, New Jersey and died September 4, 2015 in Virginia Beach.

Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.

He worked in journalism and politics until launching the Destroyer series with Richard Sapir in 1971.

A screenwriter (Lethal Weapon II, The Eiger Sanction) as well as a novelist, Murphy’s work has won a dozen national awards, including multiple Edgars and Shamuses.

Murphy has lectured at many colleges and universities, and is currently offering writing lessons at his website, warrenmurphy.com. A Korean War veteran, some of Murphy’s hobbies include golf, mathematics, opera, and investing.

He has served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and has been a member of the Screenwriters Guild, the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and the American Crime Writers League. He has five children: Deirdre, Megan, Brian, Ardath and Devin.

 

Murphy was one of the authors of the screenplay for The Eiger Sanction in 1975, and he also co-wrote (with series creator Shane Black) the original story for Lethal Weapon 2.

He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he has completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989).

Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker.

Some of his solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves.

Over his career, Murphy has sold over 60 million books.

A few years ago, he started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books.

Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin’s Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin’s Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He has served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and also has been a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

In April 2007, Warren returned to co-authoring The Destroyer, which is now published by Tor Books. His novel, Bloodline, is forthcoming from Tor in 2015.

Warren Murphy died on September 4, 2015 at age 81.