Author of the novels Leaving Las Vegas, Stripper Lessons, and The Assault on Tony's. Born 1960, died 1994 by self inflicted gun shot wound weeks after selling the screen rights to his first novel Leaving Las Vegas. The novel Leaving Las Vegas is considered to be partly autobiographical even though it was written during one of the few sober periods in his adult life, it is also considered to be his suicide note by his father. Intresting side note, Sheryl Crow was working with singer/songwriter David Baerwald, a friend of John O'Brien, when she recorded the song that used the name of his book Leaving Las Vegas.