Roy Huggins | |
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Born |
Littell, Washington, United States |
July 18, 1914
Died | April 3, 2002 Santa Monica, California, United States |
(aged 87)
Other names |
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Occupation | |
Years active | 1940s–1990s |
Spouse(s) |
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Children |
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Awards |
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Roy Huggins (July 18, 1914 – April 3, 2002) was an American novelist and an influential writer/creator and producer of character-driven television series, including Maverick, The Fugitive, and The Rockford Files. A noted writer and producer using his own name, much of his later television scriptwriting was done using the pseudonyms Thomas Fitzroy, John Thomas James, and John Francis O'Mara.
Huggins was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1935-41. After graduation, he worked as a special representative of the U.S. Civil Service, 1941-43, and later as an industrial engineer, 1943-46.
Huggins' novels include The Double Take (1946),Too Late for Tears (1947), and Lovely Lady, Pity Me (1949).
When Columbia Pictures purchased the rights to Huggins' novel The Double Take in 1948, Huggins signed a contract with the studio to adapt the script into the movie I Love Trouble. From here he entered the movie industry, working as a contract writer at Columbia and RKO Pictures. In 1952, he wrote and directed the film Hangman's Knot, a Randolph Scott Western.
A member of the Communist Party USA until the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, Huggins appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, where he named 19 former comrades who had already been named before the committee.
He worked as a staff writer at Columbia until 1955.
Huggins moved to television in April 1955, when Warner Bros. hired him as a producer. He is best known as the creator of long-running shows such as Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and The Fugitive, all on ABC.