Shimon Wincelberg (26 September 1924 – 29 September 2004) was a television writer and Broadway
playwright. He wrote the 1959 Broadway play ''Kataki'' starring
Sessue Hayakawa
, known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man ...
and
Ben Piazza.
Early life
Wincelberg was born in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. His family fled
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, arriving in the United States in the late 1930s.
Career
Wincelberg began his career as a writer in 1953 when he sold his first short story. He continued to write stories for a variety of publications including ''
Harper's Bazaar'',
''The'' ''New Yorker'', and ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
''. He wrote many plays, including the Broadway play ''Kataki'', which was based on his own experience in Army intelligence during World War II.
He wrote another play in 1962 called '' Windows of Heaven'' which premiered at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater.
He also wrote books, some with his wife Anita, who was also a writer. He also wrote many television shows during the 1960s and 1970s, often using
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
s such as "Simon Wincelberg", "Simon Winvelberg", "S. Bar-David", and "Shimon Bar-David", meaning "Shimon son of David" in Hebrew. He invented the Vulcan Mindmeld in the script for "Dagger of the Mind", which aired during the first season of
Star Trek.
Jewish identity
Wincelberg was a mentor for
Orthodox Jews working in
Hollywood. His scripts often included Jewish themes, and depicted Jewish rituals and Jewish religious law with accuracy.
Filmography
He wrote or co-wrote over 100 scripts for episodes
of the following television series:
Films
Television
Death
Wincelberg died on 19 September 2004 of an undisclosed illness in a nursing home in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
at the age of 80.
References
External links
*
1924 births
2004 deaths
American people of German-Jewish descent
American television writers
American male television writers
German Orthodox Jews
20th-century German male writers
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters
German emigrants to the United States
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