Writer Joe Hyams was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 6, 1923. He was attending Harvard University when he enlisted in the Army in 1942. He received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star while serving in the South Pacific and later became a field correspondent for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. After the war, he received a B.A. and a M.A. from New York University. After graduation, he started working for the New York Herald Tribune and covered Hollywood as a syndicated columnist from 1951 to 1964. He wrote over 25 books including Bogart and Bacall: A Love Story; Murder at the Academy Awards; Flight of the Avenger: George Bush at War; Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison… Scandal; Zen in the Martial Arts; and Mislaid in Hollywood. He died of coronary artery disease on November 8, 2008 at the age of 85.