Author of Generation Kill and multiplely honored journalist Evan Wright passed away. His age was 59. Wright passed away on Friday, July 12, by suicide, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Additionally, his widow, Kelli, confirmed his passing to Rolling Stone.
At the beginning of the 2003 Iraq invasion, Wright is well-known for enlisting in the US Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. Utilizing his background, he wrote a series of Rolling Stone stories dubbed “The Killer Elite,” which helped him win the 2004 National Magazine Award for Excellence in Reporting.
Generating Kill, his 2004 book that was turned into a seven-part drama in 2008, was inspired by his reporting. Producer David Simon revealed that he collaborated with Wright on his social media. He wrote, “We’ve lost a fine journalist and storyteller. Evan’s contributions to the scripting and filming of ‘Generation Kill’ were elemental. He was charming, funny and not a little bit feral, as many reporters are. So many moments writing in Baltimore and on set in Africa to remember.”
One of the subjects featured in “The Killer Elite,” Lt. Nathan Fick paid tribute to him by writing, “I knew Evan as a good and gentle guy in a place that was neither good nor gentle. He wasn’t a Marine, but many of us who spent March and April, 2003 alongside him have thought of Evan for the past two decades as one of us. Rest in peace, brother,” he wrote.
During his tenure, Wright also contributed to Vanity Fair and Hustler in addition to Rolling Stone. For his work on the Vanity Fair piece “Pat Dollard’s War on Hollywood,” he was awarded a 2008 National Magazine Award for Profile Writing. Wright is also the author of the novels Hella Nation (2009) and How to Get Away With Murder in America (2012).
His most recent endeavor was serving as co-executive producer for Teen Torture Inc. A press release stated that the Max documentary series, which is currently streaming, “follows on-going efforts to expose America’s “troubled teen” industry (TTI).” He was also interviewed for the documentary on his experience at The Seed, a “scared straight program for at-risk adolescents” located in South Florida, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I was a 13 year old kid tryna escape a really abusive, alcoholic home –and instead — as is really common in America — I was branded a mentally-troubled criminal, threatened with incarceration and sent to a place of total horror and abuse that was funded by the government,” Wright wrote in one of his last tweets. “This happened to me & about 9,000 other kids. Story I tell in this documentary on HBO MAX and subject of my next book.” Wright is survived by his wife and his three children.