MS_Bio

Born Frank Morrison Spillane in 1918 in Brooklyn, New York but was raised in Jersey. Father was an Irish Bartender and mother was Scottish. Worked as a lifeguard, Trampoline artist for Barnum and Bailey, and Salesman. Got a big break writing Comic Books and Two Page Text Stories. Joined the US Army Air Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Soon met Mary Ann Pearce who he married and had four children with. To sustain a suitable income for her he wrote I, The Jury in ninteen days. It sold six and a half million copies in the US alone. This novel introduced Mike Hammer how is argurabally Spillane's most famous character. Spillane wrote fourteen more novels, eleven feature films, dozens of short stories, and a number of television specials. Spillane married nightclub singer Sherri Malinou who even posed nude on a collection of his books. He also married Jane Rogers Johnson. One of Spillanes biggest honors came from winning the Edgar Allen Poe Grand Master Award in 1995. On July 17, 2006 Spillane died at his home in Murrells Inlet from pancreatic carcinoma at 88 years old.