Biography
John Dudley Ball Jr. (July 8, 1911 – October 15, 1988) was an American writer. He is best known for mystery novels involving police detective Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs was introduced in the 1965 novel In the Heat of the Night, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and was made into an Oscar-winning film of the same name, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger.
Roles across career
Titles counted once; a person can act and direct on the same film (roles merged).
0
Acting credits
0
Directing
5
Writing
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Other crew
Most critically rated
Highest TMDB score (min 100 votes)
Most commercially successful
Highest TMDB vote count (attention / reach proxy; not box office)
Career timeline
By release / first air year · movie & TV merged