- Richard Levinson
Richard Levinson (
August 7 ,1934 -March 12 ,1987 ) was an American writer and producer who often worked in collaboration withWilliam Link . He was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania , and attended theUniversity of Pennsylvania , where he earned aBachelor's Degree inEconomics in 1956. He served in theUnited States Army from 1957-1958. He married 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 "My Sweet Charlie ", "That Certain Summer ", "The Judge and Jake Wyler ", "The Execution of Private Slovik ", "Charlie Cobb: A Nice Night for a Hanging", 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).In 1979, Levinson and Link received a Special
Edgar Award from theMystery 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 theTelevision Academy Hall of Fame .Levinson died of a
heart attack at the age of 52.References
* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/levinsonric/levinsonric.htm Museum of Broadcast Communications Website]
*imdb name|id=0506087|name=Richard Levinson
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7D81531F930A25750C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print NY Times Obituary]
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