Author Ernest K. Gann Dies

Ernest K. Gann, author of 22 best-sellers, including "The High and the Mighty," "Fate is the Hunter" and "Twilight of the Gods," died last night at his San Juan Island home. He was 81.

Gann, who had been in failing health from long-standing liver, kidney and heart problems, said in an interview last year that he had written his last book and would devote the rest of his creative energies to his second passion, painting.

"God bless the man who knows when he's said enough and isn't tempted to say more," Gann said then.

Gann died at his ranch home about 7 p.m., said Lynne Rogers, a close family friend.

Gann an aviator, sailor and world traveler, wrote his last book, "The Black Watch," about the U.S. spy plane, the U2, which he once piloted. Many of his books were made into films. One, "The Antagonists," was the basis for the TV miniseries, "Masada."

He left the San Francisco area 25 years ago in search of a quieter place to work and found an 800-acre ranch near Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

One of the favorite Gann stories islanders recount was how, on his 77th birthday, Gann took his first parachute jump, despite having had a heart-bypass operation. He used to fly a five-passenger DeHavilland Beaver float plane out of Friday Harbor.

Gann's paintings of sea scenes, flying and other subjects, signed simply "Gann" in the left-hand corner, became collectors' items.

Rogers said Gann had been painting up until two days before his death. She last saw him when they went for a walk on Wednesday.

Gann was a perfectionist in both his writing and painting. If a day's painting didn't go well, he would wipe it out with a rag dipped in turpentine.

"Either way, writing or painting, it hurts like hell," Gann once said.

He is survived by his wife, Dodie; a son, Steven, of the San Francisco Bay Area; two daughters, Alison Crimmin of the Bay Area and Polly Wrench of Houston; and grandsons Christopher and Conrad.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.