Gaston Leroux

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (1868–1927) was a French author and journalist born in Paris. After graduating in law in 1889 and squandering a massive inheritance, he worked as a court reporter and foreign correspondent for Le Matin, covering major historical events. Leaving journalism in 1907 to write full-time, Leroux gained fame for his detective novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room and the iconic serial The Phantom of the Opera (1909–1910). In 1919, he co-founded the film company Société des Cinéromans. Married twice, he spent his final years in Nice, dying at age fifty-eight.