Clive Cussler (1931–2020), best-selling adventure author

Clive Cussler was a best-selling adventure author known for his series of thrillers starring Dirk Pitt, an underwater explorer and playboy who battles evil villains. One of Cussler's novels, “Sahara,” was turned into a movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. More than 100 million copies of his books have sold over the past 50 years, including both fiction and nonfiction. Cussler also became an underwater explorer in real life, leading expeditions that discovered many shipwrecks including the Confederate’s Civil War ship Manassas, that sunk in the Mississippi River in 1862.