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By LYNN ELBER, AP Tv Author
LOS ANGELES (AP) — William Hyperlink, who co-created the hit sequence “Columbo” and “Homicide, She Wrote” and made 1970s and ’80s TV films about social points then largely shunned by tv, has died. He was 87.
Hyperlink died of congestive coronary heart failure Sunday in Los Angeles, his spouse of greater than 40 years, Margery Nelson, stated in an announcement Tuesday.
The household helped Hyperlink mark his Dec. 15 birthday by taking part in YouTube movies of interviews wherein he recounted his lengthy profession, stated his niece, Amy Salko Robertson.
“He cherished it. It was the perfect birthday current we might have given him,” she stated.
“Columbo” was a spotlight of Hyperlink’s award-winning physique of labor. The sequence featured a superb, deceptively unkempt police detective that he and his longtime writing-producing accomplice, Richard Levinson, initially created for a 1960 TV anthology episode.
The pair earned a writing Emmy for the sequence, with 4 appearing trophies going to star Peter Falk. He performed the position within the 1971-78 “Columbo” run on NBC and when the crime drama moved to ABC from 1989 to 2003 as extra occasional TV films.
Hyperlink and Levinson, Philadelphia-area natives who met as mystery-loving teenagers and shortly started collaborating on tales and radio scripts, aimed to provide greater than leisure, Salko Robertson stated in an interview.
The struggle “for justice and equality” was a central theme of their tasks, she stated — together with “Columbo,” which tended to pit the wily detective towards rich and highly effective criminals.
The collaborators’ TV films included 1970’s “My Candy Charlie,” a uncommon small-screen depiction of an interracial romance that earned them a writing Emmy, and “That Sure Summer time” (1972), a groundbreaker for its sympathetic portrayal of homosexual characters.
Dramas corresponding to these “weren’t getting on TV, they usually actually fought for them,” stated Salko Robertson, a producer who dealt with enterprise issues for her uncle.
Hyperlink, an Military veteran, and Levinson wrote and had been govt producers for the Emmy-winning “The Execution of Personal Slovik” (1974), a few WWII soldier who turned the primary executed for desertion for the reason that Civil Conflict.
“Homicide, She Wrote,” with movie and stage star Angela Lansbury as an beginner sleuth, was created by Hyperlink, Levinson and Peter S. Fischer. The sequence was a sturdy, 12-season success for CBS, airing from 1984 to 1996.
Hyperlink and Levinson’s different sequence included the 1967-75 crime drama “Mannix” and 1973-74’s “Tenafly,” an early present with an African American lead character, a non-public eye performed by James McEachin.
The pair wrote screenplays for the ’70s big-screen movies “The Hindenburg,” “Rollercoaster” and for 1980’s “The Hunter,” amongst actor Steve McQueen’s closing films.
After Levinson’s demise in 1987, Hyperlink continued to put in writing, together with tales for Alfred Hitchcock’s Thriller Journal.
Moreover his spouse and Salko Robertson, Hyperlink’s survivors embody nieces and nephews John Robertson, Karen Salko Nieberg and Owen Nieberg.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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