Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (6 May 1868 – 15 April 1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been adapted several times, notably the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 stage musical. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room introduced his amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille and has become one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever.