Novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard, whose prose took readers and movie goers from the Wild West to America's urban underworld died Tuesday. He was 87 years old.

Leonard died from complications following a stroke last month.

Leonard spent much of his childhood in Detroit and set many of his novels in the city. Others were set in Miami near his North Palm Beach, Fla., vacation home. When asked why he set so many of his stories in those cities, he said simply, "If I lived in Buffalo, I'd write about Buffalo."

Several of Leonard's novels were made into movies, including “Out of Sight” and “Get Shorty.” His short story “3:10 to Yuma” was filmed twice, as were his novels “The Big Bounce” and “52 Pick-Up.”

Leonard marked his first success in 1951 when his short story "Trail of the Apaches" was published in Argosy magazine, but it wasn't until decades later that he became the darling of some of Hollywood's hippest directors.

He was married three times: to the late Beverly Cline in 1949, the late Joan Shepard in 1979 and, at the age of 68, to Christine Kent in 1993. He had five children, all from his first marriage.

With the Associated Press