Jack Laird

Jack Laird (born Jack Laird Schultheis; May 8, 1923 – December 3, 1991) was an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor. He received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his works in Ben Casey, Night Gallery, and Kojak.

For the New Zealand potter, see Jack Laird (potter).

Jack Laird
Born	Jack Laird Schultheis (1923-05-08)May 8, 1923 Monrovia, California, U.S.
Died	December 3, 1991(1991-12-03) (aged 68) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Occupation	Screenwriter Producer Director Actor
Years active	1949–1985
Spouse(s)	Cicely Ann Browne (1948-?) Peggy Johnson (1958-1963) Jeri Emmett (?-1991)

Early life

Laird was born on May 8, 1923 in Monrovia, California to Leonard Schultheis, a businessman, and Thelma Laird, a Theater Director who taught night school dramatics, and from whom Laird took classes, in his high school years he was art editor of the school newspaper, while a student at Pasadena Junior College, Laird formed his dance band "Aris Laird and his ARIStocrats of Swing", the group was made up of players who later joined the likes of Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, and Les Brown, the band broke up when Laird enlisted in the Army Air Force during World War II, he was assigned as a pilot in the Ninth Air Force, he served with the First Allied Airborne while stationed in Manchester, England.

Career

Laird entered the entertainment industry at a young age. One of his first appearances as a child actor was in an unbilled bit part in the 1934 film The Circus Clown. After his discharge from the army, Laird resumed civilian life in New York, where he enrolled at the Dramatic Workshop and studied playwriting under John Gassner, he returned to Hollywood for a screen test and ultimately starred in a series of movie and radio roles, but eventually moved into writing and producing, he began writing for various television shows, such as The Lone Ranger, The Millionaire, M Squad, Private Secretary, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Ford Theatre, The Wild Wild West, The Ann Sothern Show, Mr. District Attorney, and Have Gun – Will Travel. Laird distinguished himself as a writer and story editor on the medical show Ben Casey, eventually becoming an associate producer, he would receive an Emmy nomination in 1962 for his work on the Episode "I Remember a Lemon Tree", he then went on to write and produce independent projects for Universal Studios. In the 1970s, Laird came into his own as a producer, working on such shows as The Psychiatrist, Night Gallery, Kojak, and many more.[1][2][3]

One of Laird's favorite actors was Leslie Nielsen with whom he made several made-for-TV movies, including 1964's See How They Run, the first feature in that genre,[4][5] Code Name: Heraclitus, Dark Intruder, The Return of Charlie Chan and numerous TV episodes. Nielsen also starred in a series produced by Laird was evidently an admirer of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. He based at least two episodes of Night Gallery on Lovecraft's work - "Pickman's Model" (based directly on the Lovecraft story of the same title Pickman's Model) and "Professor Peabody's Last Lecture". The dialogue of the 1965 horror movie Dark Intruder, produced by Laird, includes some references to alien beings invented by Lovecraft, tying the film to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. In an early scene where Brett Kingsford meets with the police commissioner, opines that "gods older than the human race...deities like Dagon and Azathoth still have worshippers." He was also an avid film collector and jazz fan.[6]

Personal life

In 1948, Laird married his first wife, actress Cicely Ann Browne, but due to their careers, the marriage ended, Browne retained custody of their son, Sean. In 1958, Laird married his second wife, Peggy Johnson, a young stage actress, they had a daughter, Sharon, after five years, Johnson and Laird divorced, in the mid 1960s, Laird married his third wife, Jeri Emmett, a former Playboy Bunny turned writer, they had a daughter, Persephone, Emmett wrote a few episodes for such television Shows as, The Fugitive, Iron Horse, And Mannix, as well as a Television Series Treatment called "Confessions of a Den Mother", and a book about her days working at the playboy club called "Point Your Tail in The Right Direction".

Death

Laird died of cancer on December 3, 1991 in Los Angeles at the age of 68. His final resting place in Hollywood Forever Cemetery is in the "Garden of Legends" (formerly Section 8), Lot 266. His grave is next to the cenotaph of actress Jayne Mansfield.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Credit	Notes
1949	Mr. Belvedere Goes to College	Actor (Uncredited)
	Sword in the Desert	Actor (Uncredited)	Role: Orderly
1950	Francis	Actor (Uncredited)	Role: Switchboard Operator
1951	Call Me Mister	Actor (Uncredited)	Role: Soldier
	Journey into Light	Actor (Uncredited)
1964	The Hanged Man	Writer	Television Movie
	See How They Run	Producer
1965	Dark Intruder	Producer
1967	Code Name: Heraclitus	Producer
	How I Spent My Summer Vacation	Producer
	Ready and Willing	Producer
1968	Shadow over Elveron	Producer
1969	Trial Run	Producer
	Destiny of a Spy	Producer
1970	The Movie Murderer	Producer
	Hauser's Memory	Producer
1973	Amanda Fallon	Director, Producer
	The Return of Charlie Chan	Producer
1975	One Of Our Own	Writer, Producer
1976	Perilous Voyage	Producer
1979	Beggarman, Thief	Producer
1981	Hellinger's Law	Writer, Executive Producer
1990	Kojak: It's Always Something	Writer
	Kojak: None So Blind	Writer
	The Bride in Black	Writer

Television

Year	TV Series	Credit	Notes
1951	Racket Squad	Writer	1 Episode
1952	China Smith	Writer
	Rebound	Actor
	Your Jeweler's Showcase	Writer	1 Episode
	The Unexpected	Writer	2 Episodes
1953	The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok	Writer	1 Episode
1954	Waterfront	Writer	1 Episode
	The New Adventures of China Smith	Writer	2 Episodes
1954-55	The Lone Ranger	Writer	6 Episodes
1955	Fireside Theatre	Writer	1 Episode
	Brave Eagle	Writer	1 Episode
	Cavalcade of America	Writer	3 Episodes
1955-57	Highway Patrol	Writer	4 Episodes
1956	Warner Bros. Presents	Writer	2 Episodes
	Celebrity Playhouse	Writer	3 Episodes
	Matinee Theater	Writer	2 Episodes
	The Man Called X	Writer	2 Episodes
1956-57	Dr. Christian	Writer	6 Episodes
1957	Men of Annapolis	Writer	1 Episode
	Code 3	Writer	2 Episodes
1957-58	Broken Arrow	Writer	3 Episodes
1957-59	M Squad	Writer	12 Episodes
1957-60	The Millionaire	Writer	6 Episodes
1958	The Restless Gun	Writer	1 Episode
	Man Without a Gun	Writer	2 Episodes
	Target	Writer	1 Episode
	Rescue 8	Writer	1 Episode
1958-59	Man with a Camera	Writer	2 Episodes
	Flight	Writer	3 Episodes
1958-62	Have Gun – Will Travel	Writer	7 Episodes
1959	Tales of Wells Fargo	Writer	1 Episode
	The Third Man	Writer	1 Episode
	Dragnet	Writer	1 Episode
	World of Giants	Writer	1 Episode
	The Lineup	Writer	1 Episode
	New York Confidential	Writer	1 Episode
1959-60	Hotel de Paree	Writer	3 Episodes
	Bronco	Writer	2 Episodes
1959-61	The Rebel	Writer	4 Episodes
1960	Pony Express	Writer	1 Episode
1960-61	Dante	Writer	2 Episodes
1960-62	My Three Sons	Writer	2 Episodes
1961	The Detectives	Writer	1 Episode
1961-63	Ben Casey	Writer, Story Editor, Producer, Associate Producer, Actor	20 Episodes
1964	Channing	Writer, Producer, Executive Producer	17 Episodes
	Kraft Suspense Theatre	Producer	2 Episodes
1967	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Writer, Producer	2 Episodes
1969-70	The Bold Ones: The Protectors	Executive Producer	5 Episodes
1970	The Psychiatrist	Story Consultant	1 Episode
1970-73	Night Gallery	Writer, Director, Producer, Actor	43 Episodes
1972-73	The Bold Ones: The New Doctors	Producer	2 Episodes
1973-77	Kojak	Writer, Supervising Producer	78 Episodes
1975-76	Doctors' Hospital	Writer, Producer	13 Episodes
1976-77	Switch	Producer, Supervising Producer	8 Episodes
1977	Testimony of Two Men	Producer	3 Episodes
1978	The Dark Secret of Harvest Home	Producer	2 Episodes
	What Really Happened to the Class of '65?	Writer, Producer	3 Episodes
1981	The Gangster Chronicles	Producer	13 Episodes
1984	Whiz Kids	Writer (Uncredited)	1 Episode
1985	Deadly Nightmares	Production Consultant	1 Episode
	The Insiders	Writer	2 Episodes

Unproduced Projects

Throughout his career Jack Laird had a number of projects that were never produced or broadcast:

• In the 1960s, Laird wrote a spec script called "Red Wolf Crossing", which was an adaptation of the Will Henry novel "To Follow a Flag", he was also set to produce "Crime! Pleasant Dreams Sweet Celia", a screenplay written by Gene R. Kearney.
• In 1969, Laird was attached to two film projects that were never produced, "The Richest Hill On Earth" which was written by Halsted Welles (Based on a treatment by Laird), and "Unit Theta", which was written by Wilton Schiller.
• In the 1970s to the 1980s, Laird had written several Television Series Treatments that were never picked up called "Talmadge", "Brute Force", "Atonement", "...& Cucamonga", "The Lorne Greene Project", and "Tokatyan".
• At the time of his death, Laird was working on a television series based on stories by thriller writer Robert Ludlum[1]
• In 1967, he created an unsold comedy pilot, The Return of the Original Yellow Tornado, about two elderly, retired superheroes Mickey Rooney is the original Yellow Tornado and Eddie Mayehoff is his retired sidekick who must once again don their leotards to do battle with a super-villain who has been set free and has vowed to destroy the world. The pilot was eventually expanded to a film-that was never released.[7][8]
• In 1972, he worked as producer on one of the pilot episodes produced for Biography, an unsold TV series. Four pilots were completed and eventually appeared as TV movies, but Laird's episode about Houdini was never filmed.[7]
• In the 1970s, Laird was attached to several film projects, a spec script he had written called "Hotel Imperial - Tokyo", which was based on an original story by Alan Lee, "Mantrap", a spec script he co-wrote with Wilton Schiller, "The Broken-Field Runner", a screenplay written by Fred Segal, which Laird was going to produce.
• In 1988, Laird wrote a spec script that was called "Suffer The Little Children".

References

1. "Filmreference.com". Jack Laird Biography. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
2. "Jack Laird filmography". www.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
3. "Jack Laird Filmography". www.catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
4. "Television and the Movie Industry". digitalhistory.uh.edu. Archived from the original on 2007-10-19. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
5. "Cinema: Film History Since 1880". matthewhunt.com. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
6. Skelton, Scott; Benson, Jim (1999). Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-2782-1.
7. "The Internet Movie Database". Jack Laird - Other Works. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
8. "Mickey Rooney and Eddie Mayehoff as Superheroes to compete with Batman- The Return of the Original Yellow Tornado, Captain Nice and Mr. Terrific". www.thelifeandtimesofhollywood.com. Retrieved 2020-07-24.

External links

• Jack Laird on IMDb