Gilbert Ralston
Gilbert Ralston | |
---|---|
Born | Gilbert Alexander Ralston January 5, 1912 Newcastle, Ireland |
Died | March 18, 1999 | (aged 87)
Occupation | Screenwriter |
Gilbert Alexander Ralston (January 5, 1912 – March 18, 1999) was a British-American screenwriter,[1] journalist and author. He was a television producer in the 1950s and a screenwriter in the 1960s. He created the television series The Wild Wild West and wrote scripts for Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Ben Casey, I Spy,[1] Hawaii Five-O and Naked City. He wrote the screenplay for the 1971 movie Willard,[2] which was based on the 1968 novel Ratman's Notebooks written by Stephen Gilbert.[2]
Early life and career
Ralston was born in 1912 in Newcastle, Ireland.
In the 1950s he worked as a television producer in the United States. In the 1960s, he worked as a television screenwriter, according to the
He died on March 18, 1999, in
Television screenwriter
Ralston was a screenwriter for many of the top television shows in the United States in the 1960s. He wrote the script for the 1967 Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?", which is a line from Adonais (1821), the elegiac poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. He also wrote scripts for Ben Casey, Laredo, I Spy, The Big Valley, Gunsmoke, The Naked City, Combat, Hawaii Five-O and The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West
Ralston helped create the television series
Ralston said he then created the Civil War characters, the format, the story outline and nine drafts of the script that was the basis for the television series. It was his idea, for example, to have a secret agent named Jim West who would perform secret missions for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.
Ralston's experience brought to light a common Hollywood practice of the 1950s and 1960s, where television writers who helped create popular series allowed producers or studios to take credit for said series, thus depriving the writers of any royalties.
Outcome of court case
Ralston died in 1999 before his lawsuit was settled. Warner Brothers ended up paying Ralston's family between $600,000 and $1.5 million.[4]
Filmography
Films
Year | Film | Credit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1968 | Kona Coast | Written by | |
1971 | The Hunting Party | Written by | |
Willard | Screenplay by | based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert | |
1972 | Ben | Written by | based on characters created by Stephen Gilbert |
1976 | Special Delivery | Written by |
Television
Year | TV series | Credit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1952-53 | Your Jeweler's Showcase | Producer | 28 episodes |
1952-54 | Cavalcade of America | Producer | 14 episodes |
1953 | General Electric Theater | Producer | 12 episodes |
1955-57 | Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion | Producer, Executive Producer | 37 episodes |
1957 | High Adventure with Lowell Thomas | Producer | |
1961 | Bus Stop | Writer | 1 episode |
1961-62 | Naked City | Writer | 7 episodes |
1961-64 | Ben Casey | Writer | 16 episodes |
1962 | Route 66 | Writer | 1 episode |
Target: The Corruptors! | Writer | 1 episode | |
1962-63 | The Untouchables | Writer | 2 episodes |
1963 | Alcoa Premiere | Writer | 1 episode |
Wide Country | Writer | 1 episode | |
1964 | The Richard Boone Show | Writer | 1 episode |
Suspense | Producer | 1 episode | |
1965 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Writer | 1 episode |
Burke's Law | Writer | 1 episode | |
Gunsmoke | Writer | 1 episode | |
I Spy | Writer | 2 episodes | |
Mr. Novak | Writer | 1 episode | |
Slattery's People | Writer | 1 episode | |
The Wild Wild West | Writer | 1 episode | |
12 O'Clock High | Writer | 1 episode | |
1966 | Combat! | Writer | 1 episode |
Laredo | Writer | 1 episode | |
1966-67 | The Big Valley | Writer | 3 episodes |
1967 | Insight | Writer | 1 episode |
Iron Horse | Writer | 2 episodes | |
Star Trek | Writer | 1 episode | |
1967-68 | Gentle Ben | Writer | 5 episodes |
1968 | Land of the Giants | Writer | 1 episode |
1969 | Hawaii Five-O | Writer | 1 episode |
The Name of the Game | Writer | 1 episode | |
1971 | O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | Writer | 2 episodes |
1972 | Nichols | Writer | 1 episode |
References
- ^ All Movie Guide. 2014. Archived from the originalon 11 January 2014.
- ^ a b Canby, Vincent (19 June 1971). "Willard (1971) Screen: Affinity for Rats:Davison Plays Lead in Horror Film 'Willard'". The New York Times.
- ^ The New York Times, 8 July 1999
- ^ The Wall Street Journal, 15 July 2005
External links
- Gilbert Ralston at IMDb
- Gilbert Ralston at Memory Alpha