James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Clavell on October 10, 1924 in Australia. He was a novelist, screenwriter, director, WWII veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell and his wife traveled to the United States and settled down in Hollywood. He was a screenwriter for quite a few films in Hollywood: The Fly, Watusi, and The Great Escape are just a few examples. Clavell was also a well known writer, he wrote a saga of novels known as The Asian Saga consisting of six novels and some of his novels were later turned into films.