Henry Hunt Searls, writing as Hank Searls, was an American novelist and screenwriter whose career spanned several decades of the mid-to-late twentieth century. Born in 1922, Searls established a reputation for writing gripping, suspenseful narratives that frequently explored technological, aviation, and space-age themes. His work often caught the attention of Hollywood, leading to multiple cinematic adaptations of his original novels.
Among his most notable original works is the 1960 novel The Crowded Sky, a tense aviation drama that was quickly adapted into a major motion picture of the same name in the year of its publication. He followed this success with The Pilgrim Project in 1964, a science fiction novel centered on a manned space mission to the Moon, which served as the basis for the 1968 feature film Countdown. Writing under the pseudonym Anthony Gray, Searls also published The Penetrators in 1965, further demonstrating his versatility in the thriller genre.
In addition to his original fiction, Searls became well-known for his film novelizations. He penned the literary adaptations for major cinematic releases, most notably Jaws 2 in 1978 and Jaws: The Revenge in 1987. Through these novelizations, he expanded upon the cinematic storylines of the popular thriller franchise, cementing his legacy as a reliable and skilled storyteller in both original and adapted formats. Searls passed away in 2017 at the age of ninety-four.
