Richard Levinson
| Richard Levinson | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 7, 1934 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | March 12, 1987 (aged 52) United States |
| Occupation | Writer, producer |
Richard Levinson (August 7, 1934 - March 12, 1987) was an American writer and producer who often worked in collaboration with William Link.[1][2]
Levinson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Economics in 1956. He served in the United States Army from 1957-1958. He married actress Rosanna Huffman in 1969.
William Link and Richard Levinson co-created and produced the detective television series Columbo, Mannix, Ellery Queen, Murder, She Wrote and Scene of the Crime. They also collaborated on several made-for-TV movies including The Gun, My Sweet Charlie, That Certain Summer, The Judge and Jake Wyler, The Execution of Private Slovik, Charlie Cobb: A Nice Night for a Hanging, Rehearsal for Murder, and Blacke's Magic, which was also developed into a short-lived TV series. The partners also collaborated on two feature films: The Hindenburg (1975) and Rollercoaster (1977). Levinson and Link occasionally used the pseudonym Ted Leighton, most notably on the telefilm Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You, where their work was substantially re-written by other hands, and Columbo when they came up with stories to be scripted by their collaborators.
In 1979, Levinson and Link received a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for their work on Ellery Queen and Columbo. During the 1980s, they were three-time winners of the Edgar for Best TV Feature or MiniSeries Teleplay, and in 1989 they were given the MWA's Ellery Queen Award, which honors outstanding mystery-writing teams. In November 1995, they were jointly elected to the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Levinson died of a heart attack at the age of 52.
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ "Richard Levinson, 52, Writer of Television Mystery Series". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7D81531F930A25750C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
- ^ "Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum.tv. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/levinsonric/levinsonric.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-17.
