Thomas Harris was born in 1940 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA, where his father worked as a farmer in the town of Rich. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Baylor University in Texas in 1964, while also working for the local newspaper.
After graduating, Harris traveled Europe for a time before returning to the United States, where he worked for the Associated Press out of New York. His duties included covering murders and other crimes, which helped fuel his imagination and led him to write macabre stories for magazines.
In 1975, Harris wrote his first novel, Black Sunday, about a diabolical plot to kill thousands with a blimp during the Super Bowl. The book was turned into a film in 1977, and its success led Harris to devote his career to fictional novelization.
In 1981, Harris wrote his first book in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, Red Dragon, which sparked a loosely-based movie, Manhunter, in 1986. However, the film was quickly dismissed and grossed back only about half its cost.
Three years later, Harris wrote another novel about Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs, which became an instant hit and swept the "Big 5" at the Academy Awards in 1991. The film adaptation, released the same year, also became a huge success.
After the success of The Silence of the Lambs, there was a growing demand for another chapter in the Hannibal Lecter series. It took 11 years, but Harris finally delivered again in 1999 with the best-selling novel Hannibal, which was made into a film in 2001.
Because of the large box office take and the fact that Anthony Hopkins did not play Lecter in Manhunter, film producer Dino De Laurentiis and Harris came to terms to make a second version of the first book, titled Red Dragon, in 2002.
Harris again agreed to make another novel on the character, and also wrote the material for the film adaptation, titled Behind the Mask. As of 2005, Harris resides in Miami, Florida, and Sag Harbor, New York, USA.
