Robert Langdon’s inventor turns 60
This is what Dan Brown is doing right now
Dan Brown became a bestselling author with his thrillers.
© Markus Wissmann/Shutterstock.com
Things have been quiet recently around bestselling author Dan Brown. He is apparently devoting himself to his first calling…
He is one of the most successful bestselling authors of our time, but recently things have been a little quieter for Dan Brown (60). The author, who enjoyed great success with the Robert Langdon novel series, turns 60 on June 22nd. Will he soon present his readers with a new book?
In 2017, Robert Langdon’s most recent adventure, “Origin,” was published. The Harvard professor of iconography and symbology made his creator Dan Brown rich and famous. The author has published a total of five thrillers about him to date: “Illuminati,” “The Da Vinci Code,” “The Lost Symbol,” “Inferno,” and “Origin.”
According to his own website, Brown’s novels have been published in 56 languages worldwide and have sold over 200 million copies. With The Da Vinci Code, Brown landed at the top of the “New York Times bestseller list. It is one of the most popular books of all time. In 2005, Forbes magazine ranked Brown, who also donated a lot of money to charity, twelfth on its Celebrity 100 list and estimated his annual income at $76.5 million.
This is what lead actor Tom Hanks thinks about the Dan Brown films
In 2005, the author was named “Time” magazine was also included in the list of the 100 most influential people. The reasoning behind the award was that Brown was responsible for “reviving interest in Leonardo da Vinci and early Christian history”, boosting tourism in Paris and Rome and creating a new film starring Tom Hanks (67).
But it is precisely Tom Hanks who created one of the negative headlines that Dan Brown has had to deal with over the past five years. The Hollywood star played Robert Langdon in three films: “The Da Vinci Code,” “Illuminati” and “Inferno.” In 2022, Tom Hanks told the New York Times: “‘The Da Vinci Code’ was nonsense.” He added that the films were nothing more than “wonderful scavenger hunts” that had as little to do with history as James Bond had to do with espionage. “We offered entertainment, nothing else.” Hanks went on to explain that there was nothing wrong with good commerce, but “by the third film at the latest, we proved that it wasn’t such good commerce after all.”
In 2021, there was a new attempt at a film adaptation on the small screen. The Langdon novel “The Lost Symbol” was adapted as a television series, with Ashley Zukerman (40) in the role of Robert Langdon. The TV show was canceled after only one season.
Dan Brown’s divorce makes headlines
In 2019, Dan Brown’s then-wife Blythe Newlon also caused a stir. When it became known that the couple was divorcing after 21 years of marriage, a number of dirty allegations from Newlon against Brown were made public. She sued her ex at the time. The author filed a countersuit for libel and slander. “We were a wonderful couple for a long time,” Brown said about the rift, according to the New York Times. “People develop differently. We started living separate lives and had been for quite some time. It was time for it to be over for both of us. She agreed, so this is a total shock.” In 2021, an agreement is said to have been reached between the ex-spouses.
For some time now, Dan Brown has been pursuing his first career path again. After completing his studies, the son of a mathematics professor and a church musician from New Hampshire moved to Los Angeles to realize his lifelong dream of becoming a singer-songwriter. He got a record deal and released two albums, but they were not successful. “Music was my life’s goal and I gave it everything,” he said in an interview with Tom Power. “I was very sure that I would be successful. Many important and influential people in the music industry assured me that I would be successful – and I was not.”
Now he has come full circle to music in a way “that makes me really happy,” Dan Brown continued. In 2020, he published his children’s book “Wild Symphony,” along with a classical music album of the same name, composed by him and based on songs he produced himself about 30 years ago. In spring 2024, it was announced that he would perform “Wild Symphony” with a Canadian children’s orchestra.
Will music also lead him back to new puzzles for Robert Langdon? His fans would certainly be thrilled.