Evan Hunter (1926 - 2005) was an American author who also wrote under several pseudonyms, of which the best-known is Ed McBain. One of his best-known novels under his own name is The Blackboard Jungle, which was made into a film. As Ed McBain, he wrote crime fiction, particularly the "Eighty Seventh Precinct" police procedurals and the "Matthew Hope" detective series. Hunter also wrote screenplays, including the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and adaptations of three of his own novels.