Career

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Chris Claremont was born November 30, 1950 in London, England. He began his career in comics at Marvel with the title Iron Fist in 1974, and later went on to write stories for The Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Excalibur. Claremont currently holds the record for the longest run of any writer on one series in consecutive years. He wrote Uncanny X-Men for 16 years from 1976 through 1991. During this time he was considered one of the best at writing comics that involve teams because he would give each person on that team a moment to shine. Claremont was also best known for his excellent stories with strong heroes (particularly female characters) and villains, including entertaining and imaginative action sequences, while mixing in a soap opera atmosphere of drama.

During Claremont's run on X-Men he wrote famous storylines including The Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past. Claremont also created many X-Men characters that are still currently active. His creations include Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, Phoenix Force, Sabretooth, Mystique, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Marvel Girl, Mr. Sinister, Madelyne Pryor, and Gambit. He also helped launch best-selling spin-offs such as X-Factor, X-Men, New Mutants, Excalibur, and Wolverine. Claremont also created Wolverine's famous catch phrase "I'm the best at what I do, and what I do best isn't very nice."

In 1991, Claremont left the X-Men franchise and Marvel for a time. It is rumored that his departure was the result of differences with the editorial staff. It is noteworthy that his last major story-arc was the first "Adjectiveless" X-Men arc #1-3 (or X-Men Volume II), drawn by Jim Lee in which there are a couple instances where the characters are noticeably rationalizing, explaining, or wondering outright about what they drawn as doing. This is a writing style that Claremont is sometimes criticised for as he has shown a tendency to write long expositive dialog rather than trusting the art to drive the story.

He returned to Marvel in 1998 to write the Fantastic Four. He then started writing both The Uncanny X-Men and X-Men again, eventually he would begin writing X-Treme X-Men and later Excalibur (Vol. 3). Following a cardiac illness, Claremont took over the reigns on New Excalibur and Exiles.

Outside of of his work for Marvel Comics, Claremont has penned The Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and the Alien Vs. Predator series for Dark Horse Comics.

Chris Claremont made a cameo in X-Men: The Last Stand at the beginning of the movie during a scene involving past events in the life of Jean Grey. He was credited as the "Lawnmower man."