Wilton Schiller (July 24, 1919 – July 27, 2014) was an American producer and screenwriter. He produced the last season of the American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

television series '' The Fugitive''.

Career

Schiller started his career, as

screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and performing Stand-up comedy, after graduating from

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. In 1950s-1960s, Schiller wrote episodes of several

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

programs, including, '' Lassie'', '' Have Gun -- Will Travel'', '' The Millionaire'', '' Dragnet'', ''

Man with a Camera ''Man with a Camera'' is an American television crime drama starring Charles Bronson as a war veteran turned photographer and investigator. Throughout the 1950s, Bronson spent most of his early acting career performing in TV shows as well as ...

'', ''

M Squad ''M Squad'' is an American crime drama television series that ran from 1957 to 1960 on NBC. It was produced by Lee Marvin's Latimer Productions and Revue Studios. Its main sponsor was the Pall Mall cigarette brand; Lee Marvin, the program's ...

'', '' Leave It to Beaver'' and '' Rawhide''. In 1960s-1970s, Schiller became a producer on the medical drama ''

Ben Casey ''Ben Casey'' is an American medical drama series that aired on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaff ...

'' for 26 episodes. He produced '' Mannix'' for the first season. He also screenplayed the 1964 film ''

The New Interns ''The New Interns'' is a 1964 American drama film directed by John Rich, and the sequel to the 1962 film '' The Interns'', itself based on the novel of the same name by Richard Frede. It stars Michael Callan and Dean Jones. For his performance, ...

'' and taught screenwriting at

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. Schiller became producer for the

television series '' The Fugitive'' in 1966, replacing producer

Alan Armer Alan A. Armer (7 July 1922 – 5 December 2010) was an American television producer, best known for his Emmy-award winning tenure as the producer of '' The Fugitive''. He also produced ''The Invaders'', ''The Untouchables'' and the first year of '' ...

. In the 1970s-1980s, Schiller pioneered co-productions on the Canadian medical drama ''

Dr. Simon Locke ''Dr. Simon Locke'' (on-screen title is ''Doctor Simon Locke'') is a Canadian medical drama that was syndicated to television stations in the United States from 1971 to 1974 through the sponsorship of Colgate-Palmolive. Plot The series was in ...

'', which is also named ''Police Surgeon''. In 1979, he wrote the

television film 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 ...

'' Captain America II: Death Too Soon'' with his wife,

Patricia Patricia is a female given name of Latin origin. Derived from the Latin word ''patrician'', meaning "noble"; it is the feminine form of the masculine given name Patrick. The name Patricia was the second most common female name in the United State ...

. In 1983, Schiller wrote and was the executive producer for the miniseries ''

For the Term of His Natural Life ''For the Term of His Natural Life'' is a story written by Marcus Clarke and published in ''The Australian Journal'' between 1870 and 1872 (as ''His Natural Life''). It was published as a novel in 1874 and is the best known novelisation of life ...

'', which was based of the 1870 story ''

'', written by

Marcus Clarke Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (24 April 1846 – 2 August 1881) was an English-born Australian novelist, journalist, poet, editor, librarian, and playwright. He is best known for his 1874 novel '' For the Term of His Natural Life'', about the c ...

Death

Schiller died July 2014 of heart failure at his home in

Studio City, California Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 192 ...

, at the age of 95.

References

External links

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Rotten Tomatoes profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schiller, Wilton 1919 births 2014 deaths American television writers American television producers People from Chicago University of Chicago alumni