Michael Herr

Michael Herr was born in Lexington, Kentucky on April 13, 1940. He attended Syracuse University, but dropped out to travel in Europe and write. He served in the Army Reserve and wrote for publications including The New Leader and Holiday. From 1967-1969, he was a correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War. He wrote the article Hell Sucks, which put him in the forefront of the journalists who were writing on the war at that time. The piece became part of Dispatches, a memoir of his time in Vietnam, which was published in 1977. He also wrote Walter Winchell: A Novel, an experiment in which he combined a novel and a screenplay to tell the story of one of the country's most influential gossip columnists. He was active in the motion picture industry with writing credits for Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Heart of Darkness, and The Rainmaker. In addition, he served as an associate producer of Full Metal Jacket. He died on June 23, 2016 at the age of 76.