William Link

William Theodore Link (born December 15, 1933 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † December 27, 2020 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film producer and screenwriter . Together with his long-time colleague Richard Levinson , he was the creator and producer of the successful television series Columbo , Murder is her Hobby and Mannix .

Life

William Link was born in Philadelphia in 1933. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania , he served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958 .

Link met his future colleague Richard Levinson during his school days . Together they wrote the short story Whistle While You Work , which was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in November 1954 . Link and Levinson then began their careers as producers and screenwriters, where they should make a name for themselves in particular through crime series. Link and Levinson invented their most famous character Columbo as early as 1960 for an episode of the television series The Chevy Mystery Show . They then wrote a Columbo play called Prescription: Murder in 1962 , in the world premiere of which Thomas Mitchell played the lead role. From the play, the first Columbo episode, Murder According to a Prescription , emerged, from which the television series eventually developed. Link was a co-producer of the series until the 1990s and also worked on some of the scripts.

Link and Levinson produced other television series such as Murder is Her Hobby , Ellery Queen and Mannix . For the character of Jessica Fletcher in Murder is her hobby , they were inspired by the person Agatha Christie and her character Miss Marple. They also wrote the scripts for the films Die Hindenburg and Achterbahn . In the 1970s, Link and Levison also attracted attention as the authors and producers of several then extremely progressive television films : In the television film My Sweet Charlie (1970), an African-American murder suspect and a pregnant teenage girl became friends with Hal Holbrook in the summer of 1972 and Martin Sheen was one of the first positive portrayals of homosexual partnership on US television, and The Execution of Private Slovik (1974, also starring Martin Sheen) was about the execution of World War II derelict soldier Eddie Slovik .

Following the sudden death of Richard Levinson in March 1987, William Link continued to work as a producer and screenwriter until the late 2000s. His last work was the short film Where Do the Balloons Go? (2009). He received several awards for his work, including the 1970 Emmy Award for My Sweet Charlie and again in 1971 for Columbo . Overall, he and his colleague Levinson were nominated six more times for an Emmy between 1970 and 1985. Link's other awards include three Edgar Allan Poe Awards and a WGA Laurel Award .

In 1995 he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame with Richard Levinson. The theater on the campus of California State University in Long Beach has been named William Link Theater in his honor since 2008 . Link, who was married to Margery Nelson, died of a heart condition in December 2020 at the age of 87.

Awards

• 1970: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama for My Sweet Charlie
• 1971: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama for Columbo
• 1980: Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Television Feature or Miniseries category for Murder by Natural Causes
• 1983: Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Television Feature or Miniseries category for Rehearsal for Murder
• 1986: Edgar Allan Poe Award in the Best Television Feature or Miniseries category for Louise Jamison's Many Deaths
• 1986: WGA Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 1995: Induction into the Television Hall of Fame
• 1999: Induced into the PGA Hall of Fame for the Producers Guild of America Awards

Filmography (selection)

TV Shows

• 1967-1975: Mannix
• 1968-2003: Columbo
• 1975-1976: Ellery Queen
• 1984–1996: Murder is her hobby (Murder, She Wrote)
• 1988: rehearsal
• 1991: Over My Dead Body
• 1994-1995: The Cosby Mysteries

Movies

• 1968: Istanbul Express (Istanbul Express)
• 1970: My Sweet Charlie
• 1972: That Certain Summer
• 1972: The Judge and Jake Wyler
• 1974: The Execution of Private Slovik
• 1974: The Gun
• 1975: The Hindenburg (The Hindenburg)
• 1977: roller coaster
• 1979: Murder by Natural Causes
• 1982: Rehearsal for Murder
• 1985: Louise Jamison's Many Deaths (Guilty Conscience)
• 1991: True Friends (The Boys)
• 2009: Where Do the Balloons Go? (Short film)

Web links

• William Link in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• official website of William Link (English)
• Interview with William Link on emmytvlegends.org (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ William Link Dies: Co-Creator Of 'Columbo', 'Murder She Wrote', Was 87
2. ↑ Susan King: Classic Hollywood: William Link on 'Columbo'. In: The Los Angeles Times . June 16, 2010, accessed November 20, 2019 . 
3. ^ The selling of `Murder, She Wrote ' . In: Christian Science Monitor . April 19, 1988, ISSN  0882-7729 ( csmonitor.com [accessed December 30, 2020]).
4. ↑ Co-creator of "Columbo" and "Murder is Her Hobby": William Link is dead. Retrieved December 30, 2020 . 
5. ^ Paul Browning: University Dedicates William Link Theater. In: California State University, Long Beach . October 1, 2008, accessed September 6, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Eli Countryman: William Link, 'Columbo' and 'Murder, She Wrote' Co-Creator, Dies at 87. In: Variety. December 29, 2020, accessed December 30, 2020 (American English).