Spillane, Mickey Frank Morrison (1918–2006)

US crime novelist. He began by writing for pulp magazines and became an internationally best-selling author with books featuring private investigator Mike Hammer, a violent vigilante who wages an amoral war on crime. His most popular novels include I, the Jury (1947) and Kiss Me Deadly (1953) (both made into films in the noir style in the 1950s). Later novels include The Ship That Never Was (1982) and Something's Down There (2003).

A television series based on Mike Hammer aired 1984–87.

By the time of his 13th Mike Hammer novel, Black Alley (1996), Spillane's books had achieved sales in excess of 180 million. Other Mike Hammer novels include Vengeance is Mine (1950), Survival… Zero (1970), and The Killing Man (1989). His other works include Day of the Guns (1964), The Long Wait (1951), and The Delta Factor (1968).