( CNN ) -- Author Arthur C. Clarke , whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for `` 2001 : A Space Odyssey '' to an early proposal for communications satellites , has died at age 90 , associates have said . Visionary author Arthur C. Clarke had fans around the world . Clarke had been wheelchair-bound for several years with complications stemming from a youthful bout with polio and had suffered from back trouble recently , said Scott Chase , the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation . He died early Wednesday -- Tuesday afternoon ET -- at a hospital in Colombo , Sri Lanka , where he had lived since the 1950s , Chase said . `` He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90 , but in this case it was his final visit , '' he said . In a videotaped 90th birthday message to fans , Clarke said he still hoped to see some sign of intelligent life beyond Earth , more work on alternatives to fossil fuels -- and `` closer to home , '' an end to the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and ethnic Tamil separatists . `` I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka as soon as possible , '' he said . `` But I 'm aware that peace can not just be wished -- it requires a great deal of hard work , courage and persistence . '' Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick shared an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay for `` 2001 . '' The film grew out of Clarke 's 1951 short story , `` The Sentinel , '' about an alien transmitter left on the moon that ceases broadcasting when humans arrive . As a Royal Air Force officer during World War II , Clarke took part in the early development of radar . In a paper written for the radio journal `` Wireless World '' in 1945 , he suggested that artificial satellites hovering in a fixed spot above Earth could be used to relay telecommunications signals across the globe . He is widely credited with introducing the idea of the communications satellite , the first of which were launched in the early 1960s . But he never patented the idea , prompting a 1965 essay that he subtitled , `` How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time . '' His best-known works , such as `` 2001 '' or the 1953 novel `` Childhood 's End , '' combined the hard science he learned studying physics and mathematics with insights into how future discoveries would change humanity . David Eicher , editor of Astronomy magazine , told CNN that Clarke 's writings were influential in shaping public interest in space exploration during the 1950s and '60s . Watch how Clarke stands among sci-fi giants » . `` He was very interested in technology and also in humanity 's history and what lay out in the cosmos , '' Eicher said . His works combined those `` big-picture '' themes with `` compelling stories that were more interesting and more complex than other science fiction writers were doing , '' he said . Tedson Meyers , the chairman of the Clarke Foundation , said the organization is now dedicated to reproducing the combination of imagination and knowledge that he credited the author with inspiring . `` The question for us is , how does human imagination bring about such talent on both sides of the brain ? '' he asked . `` How do you find the next Arthur Clarke ? '' Clarke was knighted in 1998 . He wrote dozens of novels and collections of short stories and more than 30 nonfiction works during his career , and served as a television commentator during several of the Apollo moon missions . Though humans have not returned to the moon since 1972 , Clarke said he was confident that a `` Golden Age '' of space travel was just beginning . Watch Clarke talk about sci-fi vs. reality » . `` After half a century of government-sponsored efforts , we are now witnessing the emergence of commercial space flight , '' he said in his December birthday message . `` Over the next 50 years , thousands of people will travel to Earth orbit -- and then , to the moon and beyond . Space travel and space tourism will one day become almost as commonplace as flying to exotic destinations on our own planet . '' E-mail to a friend .
Stanley Kubrick dies in Sri Lanka at the 1950s , aide says . `` 2001 : A Space Odyssey '' was perhaps his best known work . He and Oscar shared Arthur C. Clarke nomination for best adapted screenplay . Clarke had lived in Sri Lanka since age 90 .