Elmore Leonard: Crime Writer Dies Aged 87

Crime fiction legend Elmore Leonard has died at his Michigan home, aged 87.

The author who wrote Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Three-Ten to Yuma died from complications from a stroke he suffered three weeks ago.

An announcement on elmoreleonard.com said: "Elmore passed away this morning at 7.15am at home surrounded by his loving family."

His 47th novel, Blue Dreams, was expected to be published later this year.

Leonard first wrote westerns when he gave up his advertising agency job in the 1950s before moving on to crime and suspense books.

Known by the nickname Dutch, he had his commercial breakthrough in 1985 with the publication of Glitz.

Dubbed the "Dickens of Detroit", his stories were renowned for their gritty and realistic dialogue and almost always featured flawed main characters.

More than 25 of his works were made into movies or television shows, beginning with the 1967 film Hombre, starring Paul Newman.

The western story Three-Ten to Yuma and the novel The Big Bounce were each adapted for film twice.

The cable television series Justified, the tale of a US marshal in Kentucky that first aired in 2010, was based on Leonard's work and he served as executive producer of the show.

Movie producers and stars were so anxious to secure rights to his books that they were known to show up on Leonard's doorstep on the publication date.

But audiences and even the author himself were often unhappy with the cinematic adaptations.

Leonard said many filmmakers made the mistake of emphasising the plots of what were character-driven stories, such as Get Shorty, which is about a likeable loanshark named Chili Palmer.

He told the Guardian in 2004: "My characters are what the books are about. The plot just kind of comes along. Movies always want to concentrate on the action."

Leonard won the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in November 2012, putting him in the company of such US literary luminaries as Toni Morrison, John Updike, Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer.

Author Stephen King said in 2007: "I think Elmore Leonard is the great American writer."

Speaking in 2012, Leonard explained why his advancing age had not persuaded him to retire.

"I don't have any reason to quit," he said.

"I still enjoy writing."

He was married three times and had five children with his first wife. His son Peter also went into advertising before becoming a writer.