did public relations for organizations including the Juilliard School, the Mann Music Center, and the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center. Wager was a member of the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America, and its secretary beginning in 2001. Personal life Wager married Sylvia Leonard (d. 1989), a fellow American student he met at the Sorbonne, in 1951 in Paris. The two had a daughter, Lisa, before the marriage ended in divorce. He married second wife Winifred McIvor Wage in 1975. A resident of Manhattan's Upper West Side, he died of complications of brain cancer in 2004, at the assisted-living facility Amsterdam House in Manhattan. Books Wager was best known as an author of crime and espionage thrillers. His novel Viper Three (Macmillan, 1971) was released as Twilight's Last Gleaming, with Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark, in 1977. That same year, his spy novel Telefon (Macmillan, 1975) was adapted as the same-name movie starring Charles Bronson and Lee Remick. Wager's airport-based thriller 58 Minutes (1987) became the basis for the 1990 action film Die Hard 2, starring Bruce Willis. Additionally, Wager wrote a number of original novels in the 1960s under the pseudonym "John Tiger" that were based on the TV series I Spy and Mission: Impossible. He also wrote the farce My Side, by King Kong as Told to Walter Wager, published by Macmillan in 1976. His series Blue Leader, Blue Moon, and Blue Murder featured tough Beverly Hills private detective Alison Gordon. As one of several writers using the pseudonym Lee Davis Willoughby, Wager also wrote the historical novels The Wildcatters and The Caribbeans. Bibliography Death Hits the Jackpot (1954; as John Tiger) The Pentagon's Favorite Magicians (1954; as John Tiger. Not published until 2014 by request of United States Department of Defense) Operation Intrigue (1956; as Walter Herman) I Spy (1965; as John Tiger) I Spy #2: Masterstroke (1966; as John Tiger) I Spy #3: Superkill (1967; as John Tiger) I Spy #4: Wipeout (1967; as John Tiger) I Spy #5: Countertrap (1967; as John Tiger) I Spy #6: Doomdate (1967; as John Tiger) Mission: Impossible (1967; as John Tiger) The Playwrights Speak (interviews with Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, Arnold Wesker, Arthur Miller, John Osborne; 1967) I Spy #7: Death-Twist (1968; as John Tiger) Mission: Impossible #4: Code Name Little Ivan (1969; as John Tiger) Sledgehammer (1970) Warhead (1971) Viper Three (1972), adapted for film as