Arthur C. Clarke passed away at the grand old age of 90 in his beloved Sri Lanka, where he lived for the last 52 years of his life.
For movie fans, Clarke is "The 2001 Guy" and little else.
David Fincher has been planning a film based on another Clarke book. We'll see if it happens.
For me, he has settled into my consciousness as a friend of Roger Ebert's. The teo apparently had a lively e-mail relationship over the years. The relationship really began in the late 50s when as a member of the Urbana High School Science Fiction Club, Roger went to see Clarke speak at U of Illinois: Champaign-Urbana
In 2003, I was in the attendance when Clarke made a rare appearance - by telephone - at Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, along with Keir Dullea and Jan Harlan after a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In one piece, Roger wrote - "At Cyberfest 1997, a birthday celebration for HAL 9000, who reveals in the film that he was born in 1997 at the university's computer lab. (There was a panel discussion featuring Arthur C. Clarke, live from Sri Lanka, on a huge screen over the stage; told by a panelist that HAL "sounded gay," Sir Arthur said, "I think you'll have to ask HAL about that.")"
In a Movie Answer Man, he offered Clarke's response to a 2001 question.
I am almost more sad that Roger is not able, for the moment, to give tribute to this man who meant so much to him, as I am by the loss of a 90 year old who lived a full life, most of it on his own terms.
Then again, there are few with that kind of vision.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/03/another_loss.html