Gaston Leroux

Gaston Leroux (1868–1927) was a French journalist and novelist. He worked for L'Écho de Paris and Le Matin, reporting on major events including the 1905 Russian Revolution, before turning to fiction full-time in 1907 and later founding his own film production company. Leroux is best remembered for The Phantom of the Opera (1910), the gothic tale of a disfigured composer haunting the Paris Opera House that inspired numerous stage and screen adaptations, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. He also wrote The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908), an early and influential locked-room mystery featuring the young reporter-detective Joseph Rouletabille, work that has drawn comparisons to Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. Leroux was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1909 and died in Nice in 1927.