Famous Author Tom Clancy Dead at 66

Best-selling thriller author Tom Clancy has died at the age of 66, according to his publisher.

While the president of G.P. Putnam’s Sons did not indicate a cause of death, The Baltimore Sun reports that Clancy died “after a brief illness at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,” in Baltimore.

Clancy has been credited for expanding the thriller genre so that, according to Pulitzer Prize–winning film critic Stephen C. Hunter, “a lot of [writers] were able to publish such books who had previously been unable to do so.”

Seventeen of Clancy’s adrenaline-packed thriller novels were No. 1 New York Times best-sellers, and four of those were adapted into Hollywood feature films.

Clancy’s most popular character, Jack Ryan, has been portrayed by Alec Baldwin (Red October), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games,Clear and Present Danger), and Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears), the former of whom released a statement this morning upon learning of Clancy’s death.