Sebastian Junger

American writer, the author of a best-selling first novel, "The Perfect Storm," 1997, the story of the 1991 sinking of a Gloucester, MA fishing boat. The book tells the story of the six men who went down with the Andrea Gail in one of the worst storms on record, a three-day northeaster that slammed ashore on 31 October 1991. Junger has built his writing credits with articles for magazines on such topics as wilderness wildfires, nature and its awesome capacity.

The son of a physicist and an artist, Junger forged his own path, enjoying the solitude of the woods and of the challenges of survival. He made extra cash as a high-climbing tree cutter, a hard and dangerous job that gave him with a chain-saw gash in 1994. He graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in cultural anthropology in 1984, drifting into odd jobs as he honed his writing.

Good-looking enough to play the role himself, he will be portrayed by actor George Clooney in the film version of "The Perfect Storm," set to begin production on 26 July 1999, Los Angeles.