1918-

American naval officer and author whose experiences as a submarine commander were celebrated on the pages of best-selling fiction and non-fiction books. After graduating second in his U.S. Naval Academy class (1939), Beach was among the first to attend submarine school (1941). His first book, Submarine!, was published in 1952, and his novel Run Silent, Run Deep (1955) became a popular motion picture. In 1960 he commanded the nuclear submarine Triton on a record underwater circumnavigation of the globe.