Best-selling author Sidney Sheldon dies in California at 89

Sidney Sheldon, who won awards in three careers - Broadway theater, movies, television - then at

age 50 turned to writing best-selling novels about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men, has died. He was 89.

Sheldon died Tuesday afternoon of complications from pneumonia at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, said Warren Cowan, his publicist for more than 25 years. His wife Alexandra and his daughter, author Mary Sheldon, were by his side. (AP)