The directory «Plots»
Clancy Jr. Thomas Leo
(b. 1947)
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War and his video games. His name is also a brand for similar movie scripts written by ghost writers and many series of non-fiction books on military subjects and merged biographies of key leaders. He is also part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles, a Major League Baseball team. He officially is the Orioles' Vice Chairman of Community Activities and Public Affairs.
Thomas Leo Clancy, Jr. was born in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. He attended Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Maryland, graduating with the class of 1965. He studied English Literature at Loyola College in Baltimore, graduating in 1969. Though he wanted to serve in the United States military, he was rejected after failing a required eye exam in the ROTC. Before making his literary debut, he spent some time running an independent insurance agency.
In 1993, Tom Clancy joined a group of investors that included Peter Angelos and bought the Baltimore Orioles from Eli Jacobs. In 1998, he reached an agreement to purchase the Minnesota Vikings, but had to abandon the deal due to the cost of his divorce settlement.
On June 26, 1999, Clancy married freelance journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn. Llewellyn is the first cousin of Colin Powell, who originally introduced the couple to each other.
In 2008, the use of Clancy's name was purchased by French video game manufacturer Ubisoft for an undisclosed sum. It will be used in conjunction with video games and related products such as movies, and books.
Clancy has generally been regarded as a political conservative, and has donated over US$256,000 to Republican Party political candidates.
A week after the 9/11 attack, on The O'Reilly Factor, Clancy stated that left-wing politicians in the United States were partly responsible for September 11 due to their "gutting" of the CIA. Clancy has also associated himself with General Anthony Zinni, a critic of the George W. Bush administration, and has been critical of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Some of his books bear dedications to Republican political figures, most notably Ronald Reagan. In his novels countries portrayed as hostile to the U.S. include the former Soviet Union, Syria, China, Iran, India, and Japan while Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom are shown as close allies of the USA.
Clancy was an early defender of Islam during the aftermath of September 11 attack. On CNN, Clancy argued that Islam does not condone suicide attacks.
On September 11, 2001, Clancy was interviewed by Judy Woodruff on CNN. Among other observations during this interview, Clancy cited discussions he had with military experts on the lack of planning to handle a hijacked plane being used in a suicide attack, criticized the news media's treatment of the U.S. intelligence community. Clancy appeared again on PBS's Charlie Rose, where he debated Vice-Presidential candidate Senator John Edwards.
The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears have been turned into commercially successful films with actors Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and Harrison Ford as Clancy's most famous fictional character Jack Ryan, while his second most famous character John Clark has been played by actors Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber. The first NetForce novel was adapted as a television movie, starring Scott Bakula and Joanna Going. The first Op-Center novel was released to coincide with a 1995 NBC television mini-series of the same name (Tom Clancy's Op-Center) starring Harry Hamlin and a cast of stars. Though the mini-series didn't continue the book series did, but it had little in common with the first mini-series other than the title and the names of the main characters.
With the release of The Teeth of the Tiger, Clancy introduced Jack Ryan's son and two nephews as main characters.
Clancy has written several nonfiction books about various branches of the U.S. armed forces/
These are sometimes referred to by fans as "apostrophe" books; Clancy did not initially acknowledge that these series were being authored by others, only thanking the actual authors in the headnotes for their "invaluable contribution to the manuscript".
In 1997, Clancy signed a book deal with Penguin Putnam Inc. (both part of Pearson Education), that paid him US$50 million for the world-English rights to two new books. He then signed a second agreement for another US$25 million for a four-year book/multimedia deal. Clancy followed this up with an agreement with Berkley Books for 24 paperbacks to tie in with the ABC television miniseries Tom Clancy's Net Force aired in the fall/winter of 1998. The OP-Center universe has laid the ground for the series of books written by Jeff Rovin, which was in an agreement worth US $22 million bringing the total value of the package to US$97 million.
All but two of Clancy's novels feature Jack Ryan or John Clark.
Guinea, 2006, Connery in «The Hunt for Red October»
Guinea, 2006, Connery in «The Hunt for Red October»
