Clancy, Tom

Clancy, Tom

(Thomas Leo Clancy, Jr.), 1947–2013, American popular novelist, b. Baltimore, grad. Loyola Univ. Maryland (B.A., 1969). While working as an insurance agent he wrote The Hunt for Red October (1984, film 1990), a fast-paced thriller, filled with details about Soviet and American military technology, that introduced the CIA's Jack Ryan, Clancy's best-known hero. Clancy's other espionage and military tales, 17 of which reached the top of the best-seller list, include Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987, film 1992), Clear and Present Danger (1989, film 1994), The Sum of All Fears (1991, film 2002), Debt of Honor (1994), Rainbow Six (1998), The Teeth of the Tiger (2003), Threat Vector (2012), and Command Authority (2013). Clancy also wrote a TV miniseries, Op Center (1995), and several non-fiction works: Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship (1993), Into the Storm: A Study in Command (with F. Franks, Jr., 1997), Every Man a Tiger (with Gen. C. Horner, 1999), and Battle Ready (with Gen. A. Zinni, 2004).