28 Facts About Tom Clancy

1.

Tom Clancy is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War.

2.

Tom Clancy's name was used on movie scripts written by ghostwriters, nonfiction books on military subjects occasionally with co-authors, and video games.

3.

Tom Clancy was a part-owner of his hometown Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles of the American League, and vice-chairman of their community activities and public affairs committees.

4.

Tom Clancy's works inspired games such as the Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, The Division, and Splinter Cell series.

5.

Tom Clancy was born on April 12,1947, at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in the Northwood neighborhood in northeast Baltimore.

6.

Tom Clancy was the second of three children to Thomas Clancy, who worked for the United States Postal Service, and Catherine Langan Clancy, who worked in a store's credit department.

7.

Tom Clancy was a member of Troop 624 of the Boy Scouts of America.

8.

Tom Clancy's mother worked to send him to Loyola High School in Towson, Maryland, a private Catholic secondary school taught by the Jesuit religious order.

9.

Tom Clancy then attended the associated Loyola College in Baltimore, graduating in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in English literature.

10.

Tom Clancy joined the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps; however, he was ineligible to serve due to his myopia, which required him to wear thick eyeglasses.

11.

In 1973, Clancy joined the O F Bowen Agency, a small insurance agency based in Owings, Maryland, founded by his wife's grandfather.

12.

Tom Clancy, who had hoped to sell 5,000 copies, ended up selling over 45,000.

13.

The book was critically praised for its technical accuracy, which led to Tom Clancy meeting several high-ranking officers in the US military, as well as Steve Pieczenik, and to inspiration for recurring characters in his works.

14.

Tom Clancy's novels focus on the hero, most notably Jack Ryan and John Clark, both Irish Catholics like himself.

15.

Tom Clancy became the cornerstone of a publishing list by Putnam which emphasized authors like Tom Clancy who would produce annually.

16.

Tom Clancy has author status on the cover of dozens of books.

17.

Tom Clancy co-authored memoirs of top generals, and produced numerous guided tours of the elite aspects of the American military.

18.

Tom Clancy did for military pop-lit what Starbucks did for the preparation of caffeinated beverages: he launched a sprawling, massively profitable industrial enterprise that simultaneously serves and cultivates an insatiable consumer base.

19.

In 1993, Tom Clancy joined a group of investors that included Peter Angelos, and bought the Baltimore Orioles from Eli Jacobs.

20.

Tom Clancy wrote several nonfiction books about various branches of the US Armed Forces.

21.

Tom Clancy branded several lines of books and video games with his name that are written by other authors, following premises or storylines generally in keeping with Clancy's works.

22.

On September 11,2001, Tom Clancy was interviewed by Judy Woodruff on CNN.

23.

Tom Clancy appeared again on PBS's Charlie Rose, to discuss the implications of the day's events with Richard Holbrooke, New York Times journalist Judith Miller, and Senator John Edwards, among others.

24.

Tom Clancy was interviewed on those shows because his book Debt of Honor included a scenario wherein a disgruntled Japanese airline pilot crashes a fueled Boeing 747 into the US Capitol dome during an address by the President to a joint session of Congress, killing the President and most of Congress.

25.

Wanda Tom Clancy filed for divorce in November 1997, which became final in January 1999.

26.

On June 26,1999, Tom Clancy married freelance journalist Alexandra Marie Llewellyn, whom he had met in 1997.

27.

Tom Clancy purchased a 17,000-square-foot penthouse condominium in the Ritz-Carlton, in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, for $16 million.

28.

Tom Clancy died of heart failure on October 1,2013, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, near his Baltimore home.