Jackson Gillis, Writer for Numerous Classic Series, Dies
The versatile Gillis wrote episodes of dozens of series in a career spanning more than 40 years.
Jackson Gillis, a prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and included a daunting volume and variety of episodic television, died August 15, 2010, in Moscow, Idaho. He was 93.
According to news reports, the cause was pneumonia.
Gillis, who wrote for everything from children’s serials to crafty legal and espionage dramas, was known for his versatility and longevity — he earned his first television credit in 1952, for Racket Squad, and his last in 1994 for Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
Superman was a familiar subject for GIlis, who penned episodes of The Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves as the Man of Steel, in the 1950s.
He also wrote for such series as Lassie, Perry Mason, Ironside, The Fugitive, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Lost in Space, Bonanza, Hawaii Five-O, The FBI, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Wonder Woman, Murder, She Wrote, Columbo and many others.
He earned a Primetime Emmy nomination in 1972, for an episode of Columbo.
Gillis was born in Kalama, Washington, on August 21, 1916. In his teens he moved with his family to California. He went to Fresno State University and graduated from Stanford.
During World War II he served as an Army intelligence officer in the Pacific. When the war ended, he and his wife moved to Los Angeles, and he began writing for radio, including the mysteries The Whistler and Let George Do It.
In the ’50s he made the transition to television and worked steadily in numerous genres until his retirement.
He was married 62 years to Patricia Cassidy, who died in 2003. The couple met when they were fellow actors at the Barter Theater following his graduation from college.
He is survived by his daughter, a brother and a grandson.