Donald Bengtsson Hamilton was an American writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction, but also crime fiction and westerns, such as The Big Country. He is known best for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency. The noted critic Anthony Boucher wrote: "Donald Hamilton has brought to the spy novel the authentic hard realism of Dashiell Hammett; and his stories are as compelling, and probably as close to the sordid truth of espionage, as any now being told."
Matt Helm is a fictional character created by American author Donald Hamilton (1916-2006). Helm is a U.S. government counter-agent, a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in most spy thrillers.
Irving Allen was an Austro-Hungarian–born American theatrical and cinematic producer and director.
The Silencers is the title of a 1962 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, the fourth in a series of books featuring assassin Matt Helm.
The Ambushers is a novel by Donald Hamilton first published in 1963, continuing the exploits of assassin Matt Helm.
Murderers' Row is a 1966 American comedy spy-fi film starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm. It is the second of four films in the Matt Helm series, and is very loosely based upon the 1962 spy novel Murderers' Row by Donald Hamilton.
The Wrecking Crew is a 1968 American spy comedy film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm, along with Elke Sommer, Sharon Tate, Nancy Kwan, Nigel Green, and Tina Louise. It is the fourth and final film in the Matt Helm series, and is loosely based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Donald Hamilton. The film opened in Canada in December 1968 before premiering in the United States in February 1969.
Death of a Citizen is a 1960 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, and was the first in a long-running series of books featuring the adventures of assassin Matt Helm. The title refers to the metaphorical death of peaceful citizen and family man Matt Helm and the rebirth of the deadly and relentless assassin of World War II.
The Silencers is a 1966 American spy comedy film directed by Phil Karlson, starring Dean Martin as agent Matt Helm. The screenplay by Oscar Saul is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Donald Hamilton, while also adapting elements of Hamilton's first Helm novel, Death of a Citizen (1960). The film co-stars Stella Stevens, Daliah Lavi, Victor Buono, Arthur O'Connell, Robert Webber, James Gregory, Roger C. Carmel, Beverly Adams, and Cyd Charisse.
The Ambushers is a 1967 American spy comedy film directed by Henry Levin starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm, along with Senta Berger and Janice Rule. It is the third of four films in the Matt Helm series, and is based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Donald Hamilton, as well as The Menacers (1968) that featured UFOs and a Mexican setting. When a government-built flying saucer is hijacked mid-flight by Jose Ortega, the exiled ruler for an outlaw nation, secret agent Matt Helm and the ship's former pilot Sheila Sommers are sent to recover it.
The Dominators is the title of an unpublished novel by Donald Hamilton. The book, which was completed in the early 2000s, was intended to be the 28th novel in Hamilton's Matt Helm spy series, continuing the adventures of the character introduced in the 1960 novel Death of a Citizen and later popularized by actor Dean Martin in a series of late-1960s motion pictures.
The Ravagers is a novel by Donald Hamilton that was first published in 1964. It was the eighth novel in his long-running series of adventures featuring secret agent Matt Helm.
The Betrayers is the tenth novel in the Matt Helm spy series by Donald Hamilton, which originated with Death of a Citizen in 1960. This novel was first published in 1966. It was reissued in 2014 by Titan Books.
The Menacers, first published in 1968, was the eleventh novel in the Matt Helm spy series by Donald Hamilton and the first published since the launch of the Matt Helm film series starring Dean Martin.
The Interlopers, first published in 1969, was the twelfth novel in the Matt Helm spy series by Donald Hamilton, which began in 1960. It represents a middle period in the Helm novels, being about 80,000 words in length, somewhat longer than the first four or five in the series, but considerably shorter than most of the Helm books of the eighties and nineties, which were generally well over 100,000 words in length. At this intermediate length, the action moved swiftly while still allowing for plot complications, but avoided the occasional padded-out-by-dialogue tedium of the later books.
The Terrorizers was the eighteenth novel in the Matt Helm secret agent novel series by Donald Hamilton. It was first published in 1977. Following the publication of this book, Hamilton put his longtime character on hiatus; the next Matt Helm novel, The Revengers, would not be published until 1982.
The Revengers, published in 1982, is a novel in the long-running secret agent series Matt Helm by Donald Hamilton. It was the first Helm book published since 1977 and the nineteenth book published overall since 1960.
The Vanishers is a 1986 spy novel by Donald Hamilton. It is the twenty-third book in a series of novels featuring the adventures of assassin Matt Helm.
The Threateners is a spy novel by Donald Hamilton first published in 1992. It is the twenty-sixth installment of the Matt Helm series, and saw the return of the main character after a three-year hiatus.
The Damagers, published in 1993, is a spy novel by Donald Hamilton, and the twenty-seventh volume of the adventures of government assassin Matt Helm. Hamilton had launched the series in 1960 with Death of a Citizen and this novel is a sequel to the second Helm book, The Wrecking Crew, also from 1960.
