David Duncan (Author)

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David Duncan (* 17th February 1913 in Billings , Montana ; † 27. December 1999 in Everett , Washington ) was an American screenwriter and novelist writer . He was best known for his work for the two Oscar-winning science fiction film classics of the 1960s The Time Machine and The Fantastic Journey .

life and work

David Duncan, son of cattle dealer Robert Llewellyn Duncan and his wife Lela Davis, graduated from the University of Montana in 1935 . In 1936 he finally became a state examiner at the Department of Agriculture in Washington , 1936 to 1940 he was a social worker in the administration of the California State Relief Administration in Fresno .

In 1940 David Duncan took his first steps as a freelance writer in Mexico , but from 1941 to 1943 he also worked as a manager in the social housing project Farm Security Administration in California , and later for two years as director in California and Nevada at the American Red Cross . From 1944 to 1946 he worked as an economist at the National Labor Bureau in San Francisco . From 1946 Duncan finally worked as a freelance writer.

In 1953 Duncan gained his first screenwriting experience in Hollywood as a co-author of films by Edward Ludwig , such as Paramount 's first 3-D film Sangaree or The Treasure of Jivaro , each with Fernando Lamas in the lead role. After his science fiction novel Dark Dominion was published by Collier’s magazine in 1954 , David Duncan also wrote a number of scripts for science fiction B-movies such as the US adaptation of the Japanese film The Flying Monsters by in the late 1950s Osaka (director: Ishirô Honda ) and the stories for utopian dramas such as Alarm für Sperrzone 7 (1957, director: Arnold Laven ) or The horror creeps through the night (1958, director: Jack Arnold ).

In 1960 he wrote the screenplay of the science fiction classic The Time Machine with Rod Taylor in the lead role for the director George Pal , based on the novel of the same name by the popular British writer HG Wells . In 1966, Duncan's script for Richard Fleischer's science fiction film The Fantastic Journey with Stephen Boyd and Raquel Welch was written .

From 1958 to 1970 David Duncan also wrote numerous screenplays for episodes of well-known American television series such as Telephone Time (1958), Men Into Space (1959–1960), Vilma and King (1960), My Three Sons (1960–1961) , It's a Man's World (1962), The Outer Limits (1963), FBI (1966), The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968–1969) or High Chaparral (1969). Between 1964 and 1970 alone, 21 episodes were created for the successful Western series Daniel Boone with Fess Parker . His last work was on the documentary Time Machine: The Journey Back in 1993.

Duncan was a member of the Writers Guild of America , West.

On May 5, 1940, he married the teacher Elaine Sulliger, with whom he had two children.

bibliography

Novels
  • 1944: Remember the Shadows
  • 1946: The Shade of Time
  • 1948: The Bramble Bush (also known as Sweet, Low, and Deadly , 1949)
  • 1949: The Madrone Tree (also as Worse Than Murder , 1954)
  • 1950: The Serpent's Egg
  • 1950: None But My Foe
  • 1952: Wives and Husbands
  • 1954: Dark Dominion
  • 1955: Beyond Eden (also as Another Tree in Eden , 1956)
  • 1956: The Trumpet of God
  • 1957: Occam's Razor
  • 1959: Yes, My Darling Daughters
  • 1964: The Long Walk Home From Town
Short stories
  • 1960: The Immortals (1960, German: Das Y-Hormon , in: Walter Ernsting (Ed.): Galaxy 4 , Heyne SF&F # 3060, 1965)
  • 1964: Requiem on the Moon
  • 1971: On Venus the Thunder Precedes the Lightning

Filmography

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Duncan, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Billings , Montana
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1999
Place of death Everett , Washington , USA