Christopher Andersen was born on May 26, 1949. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. He was the senior editor of People Magazine from 1974 to 1986. He has also written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Life, and Vanity Fair. He has written over 25 books. His early nonfiction books range from psychology in The Name Game to true crime in The Serpent's Tooth to art collecting in The Best of Everything. He is best known for his biographies including Somewhere in Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve, The Day John Died, Madonna… Unauthorized, and These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie. He received the Joan's Legacy Award for excellence in journalism regarding lung cancer in 2008.