Gustav Hasford

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Gustav Hasford
Gus Hasford in Vietnam
Born	November 28, 1947 Russellville, Alabama, U.S.
Died	January 29, 1993 Aegina, Greece

Gustav Hasford (November 28, 1947 - January 29, 1993) in Russellville, Alabama) joined the Marines in 1967, serving as a combat correspondent during the Vietnam War. His semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers was later made into the film Full Metal Jacket. The film's screenplay, nominated for an Academy Award, was authored by director Stanley Kubrick, writer Michael Herr, and by Hasford himself, although his exact contributions were a subject of dispute between the three and ultimately Hasford chose to skip the Oscar ceremonies.

Hasford associated with various sci-fi authors of the 1970s, published in sci-fi zines of the period, and briefly shared an apartment with science fiction author Harlan Ellison. A bibliophile, Hasford was arrested in 1988 in San Luis Obispo for stealing some 10,000 books from libraries across America and England. Hasford claimed that he had "borrowed" the works to research a never-published book on the Civil War. He served three months of a six-month sentence and promised to pay damages from the royalties to his next book, a sequel to The Short-Timers called The Phantom Blooper.

Hasford's final novel, a detective story set in Los Angeles called A Gypsy Good Time, was published in 1992. It received little notice and Hasford, suffering from diabetes, moved to the island of Aegina off the coast of Greece. He died there of heart failure on January 29, 1993.