John O'Brien (novelist)

John O'Brien (May 21, 1960 – April 10, 1994) was an American author. His first novel Leaving Las Vegas was published in 1990 by Watermark Press and made into a film of the same name in 1995.


O'Brien was born in Oxford, Ohio, where his parents, Bill and Judy O'Brien, were both students at Miami University. He was the brother of writer Erin O'Brien. He grew up in Brecksville and Lakewood Ohio and graduated from Lakewood High School in 1978. He married Lisa Kirkwood in 1979 and the couple moved to Los Angeles, California in 1982. His first novel, Leaving Las Vegas, is dedicated to her.
O'Brien committed suicide by gunshot two weeks after learning that his novel, Leaving Las Vegas, was to be made into a movie. His father says that the novel was his suicide note.[1] Two more of his novels were published posthumously: Stripper Lessons (Grove Press 1997), and The Assault on Tony's (Grove Press, 1996), which had been left unfinished at the time of his death and was completed by his sister, Erin.[2] A third manuscript, titled Better, was published by Akashic Press in 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O'Brien_(novelist)