Alan Armer

Alan A. Armer was an American screenwriter, producer and director. He was born in Los Angeles, California on July 7, 1922. He received a bachelor's degree in speech and drama from Stanford University, a master¹s in theatre arts from UCLA and an honorary doctor's degree from California State University, Northridge (CSUN).

After college, Armer started his entertainment career at a radio station in San Jose where he worked as an announcer. After moving back to Los Angeles in search of a radio job, Armer began working at an advertising agency that specialized in television ads. In that role, Armer later wrote, acted in, directed, narrated and edited television commercials. From there, Armer and a relative by marriage Walter Grauman developed their own television show, "Lights, Camera, Action", which aired on NBC affiliate KNBH for three years. He later was hired by the station as a floor manager and then director. He later went on to 20th Century Fox, where he wrote, produced and directed several television series, including "My Friend Flicka" and "Broken Arrow".

Armer later became executive producer for the award-winning Desilu production of "The Untouchables". He subsequently joined QM Productions where he produced "The Fugitive" for which he received the Television Academy's Emmy Award, "The Invaders", and the first year of "Cannon". For his work on "The Fugitive", Armer won a 1965 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, a "Most Popular Series" award from TV Guide Magazine and a Producers Guild Award. He later became a member of the Producers Guild's Television Hall of Fame.

In 1980, he became a part-time faculty member at CSUN and eventually became a full professor on their staff. While at CSUN Armer published two textbooks, "Directing Television and Film": and "Writing the Screenplay - TV and Film." He retired from teaching in 1999, but has remained active through writing and consulting with screenwriters. In 2002, the second edition of "Writing the Screenplay" was released. CSUN recently completed construction on their state-of-the art, 130 seat Alan and Elaine Armer Theater.