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British sci-fi legend Arthur C. Clarke dies aged 90

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British science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke, best known for writing '2001: A Space Odyssey', died in Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning at the age of 90.
COLOMBO, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - British science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke, best known for writing '2001: A Space Odyssey', died in Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning at the age of 90.

Clarke, who penned almost 100 titles in a career spanning 60 years, also made an important contribution to science, with his idea of using geostationary satellites for telecommunications relays.

The author lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 and held dual citizenship. He died of respiratory problems and heart failure.

The secretary of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, Scott Chase, told reporters on Wednesday: "He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90, but in this case it was his final visit."

Clarke's most famous novel is '2001: A Space Odyssey', written after his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on a screenplay for the sci-fi epic of the same name, based on The Sentinel, a short story Clarke had written in 1948.

However, arguably his most popular and acclaimed work is 'Rendezvous with Rama', published in 1972.

In the novel, a group of human explorers intercept a vast alien starship passing through the solar system, and attempt to find out its mysteries. Encounters between humans and superior alien intelligence were a recurrent theme in Clarke's writing.

He became a familiar face to British television viewers in the 1980s, with his shows Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers.

From an early age Clarke was passionate about mankind's potential for space travel.

He once said: "I'm sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I'm rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books."

Clarke was born in Minehead, in England's Somerset in 1917. He served as a radar expert in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and after the war became involved in the British Interplanetary Society.

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