14 Facts About Leon Uris

Leon Marcus Uris was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books, including Exodus and Trinity.

Leon Uris's father, born in Volkovysk in the Russian Empire, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper.

Leon Uris derived his last name from Yerushalmi, meaning "man of Jerusalem".

At age six, Leon Uris reportedly wrote an operetta inspired by the death of his dog.

Leon Uris attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore, but never graduated from high school, and failed English three times.

Leon Uris served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment, where he was stationed in New Zealand, and fought as a radioman in combat on Guadalcanal and Tarawa from 1942 through 1944.

Leon Uris was sent to the US after suffering from dengue fever, malaria and a recurrence of asthma that made him miss the devastation of his battalion at the Battle of Saipan, which was featured in Battle Cry.

Leon Uris then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the eponymous movie which was extremely popular with the public, but not the critics.

Leon Uris went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece.

QB VII, about the role of a Polish doctor in a German concentration camp, is a dramatic four-part courtroom novel written by Leon Uris that was published in 1970, highlighting the events leading to a libel trial in the United Kingdom.

Leon Uris wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the OK.

Leon Uris then married Marjorie Edwards in 1968, who committed suicide by gunshot the following year.

Leon Uris died of kidney failure at his Long Island home on Shelter Island in 2003, aged 78.

Leon Uris was survived by his five children and two grandchildren.