Roald Dahl was born in Wales on September 13, 1916, to Norwegian parents. Dahl's father died in 1920, and Roald and his siblings were raised by his mother. Roald Dahl's childhood was spent in boarding schools and summer trips to Norway. Dahl's childhood memories are recounted in the autobiography Boy.
Upon graduating from school, Dahl worked for Shell Petroleum, a job that brought him to Africa. Much of his time spent in Africa is recounted in the autobiography Going Solo. When World War II began, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force and flew several missions, shooting down enemy planes and even surviving a crash. Dahl had his first story published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1942, an embellishment of his crash titled "Shot Down Over Libya." In reality, he had run out of fuel. Dahl's first novel was the children's tale The Gremlins, published in 1943.
Dahl had a long and successful career as both a children's novelist and an adult short story writer. Both categories of work feature a mischievous and at times macabre sense of humor. Dahl's children's stories typically feature child heroes facing off against evil adults, while his adult short stories frequently ended in sinister twists.
Several of Dahl's works have been made into motion pictures, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (in 1971, starring Gene Wilder, and in 2005, starring Johnny Depp), James and the Giant Peach (1996), The Witches (1990), and Matilda (1996). He also adapted into screenplays two Ian Fleming novels: the James Bond novel You Only Live Twice (1967), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted into a television series in Great Britain from 1979 to 1988.
From 1953 to 1983, Dahl was married to Patricia Neal (1926-), an actress whose films included The Fountainhead (1949), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and the scifi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). They had five children. Following their divorce in 1983, Dahl married Felicity "Liccy" Crosland, Patricia's (former) best friend.
Roald Dahl died in England of leukemia on November 23, 1990. | 
