Stephen Lodge (February 6, 1943 – February 26, 2017) was an American author, television screenwriter and actor; also a former costumer and stuntman to the industry. He was born in the

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

area of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Early and professional life

Lodge was the co-writer of the

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted m ...

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

epic, the 1993

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

TV movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

''Rio Diablo'', co-starring

Travis Tritt James Travis Tritt (born February 9, 1963) is an American country music singer and songwriter. He signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1989, releasing seven studio albums and a greatest hits package for the label between then and 1999. In the 20 ...

Naomi Judd Naomi Judd (born Diana Ellen Judd; January 11, 1946 – April 30, 2022) was an American singer and actress. In 1980, she and her daughter Wynonna (born Christina Claire) formed the duo known as The Judds, which became a very successful country ...

and

Stacy Keach Walter Stacy Keach Jr. (born June 2, 1941) is an American actor and narrator. He has played mainly dramatic roles throughout his career, often in law enforcement or as a private detective. His most prominent role was as Mickey Spillane's fiction ...

. His first major screenwriting credit was for the

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

feature ''

The Honkers ''The Honkers'' is a 1972 American drama film directed by Steve Ihnat and written by Steve Ihnat and Stephen Lodge. The film stars James Coburn, Lois Nettleton, Slim Pickens, Anne Archer, Richard Anderson and Joan Huntington. The film was sho ...

'' starring James Coburn. Soon afterwards, he was writing, producing and directing the film, ''One Block Away'' – this was co-written by Hoke Howell, who also acted in it. Another of Lodge's films, ''

Kingdom of the Spiders ''Kingdom of the Spiders'' is a 1977 American science fiction horror film directed by John "Bud" Cardos and produced by Igo Kantor and Jeffrey M. Sneller. The screenplay is credited to Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou, from an original story ...

'', starring Star Trek's

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...

, aired regularly on

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in the 1990s. Lodge grew up watching "B"

s, and his ambition from early on was to become an actor when he was older. He was able to visit movie sets as a youth, and was in awe of the experience. When he was 10, he was presented with an 8mm

movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie sc ...

for his birthday. This encouraged him to write, direct and act in his own amateur productions. He started

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...

acting at 12 years old, and by the age of 16 he had appeared at Hollywood's famous

Corriganville __NOTOC__ Corriganville Movie Ranch was a working film studio and movie ranch for outdoor location shooting, as well as a Western-themed tourist attraction. The ranch, owned by actor and stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan, was located in the foothil ...

Western movie ranch. When his time at college ended, he was employed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

, where, among other things, he was an assistant to the

associate producer A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...

on the 1963 TV series ''

Camp Runamuck ''Camp Runamuck'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC during the 1965–66 television season. The series was created and executive produced by David Swift, and aired for 26 episodes. Synopsis The series related the wacky goings-on at the t ...

''. He also gained media experience as a costumer for numerous productions, notably the classic 1963 TV series '' The Fugitive''.

Later life

Lodge lived in Rancho Mirage,

, near

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...

, with his wife Beth and their two dogs. Since moving to the desert he wrote, produced and directed a 90-minute TV special, ''Bordello''; authored several articles for various magazines; and completed additional screenplays, including adaptations of his novels, ''Shadows of Eagles'', ''Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!'', and ''Nickel-Plated Dream''.Biographical Detail
of Stephen Lodge at

IMDb.com IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

References

External links

Stephen Lodge
general biography at ''AuthorsDen.com'' * - acting credits * - miscellaneous credits
Profile
at

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

Behind-the-scenes production photos
Collection of Stephen Lodge. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lodge, Stephen 1943 births 2017 deaths American television writers American male television writers Screenwriters from California