Richard Alan Simmons, TV Writer/Producer
Stephen Bowie
last Saturday. Simmons was a "writer's writer" whose work was not
well-known outside the industry but was highly respected by his peers;
when I've asked writers of his generation to name colleagues whose
work they admire, Simmons' name often comes up.
After some work in radio, he'd been one of the last group of writers
under contract to a major studio (Universal) and considered his stint
at the fabled writers table in the commissary there a valuable
formative experience. At Universal, he racked up a couple dozen
screen credits, almost all rewrites, the best known being a polish on
Richard Matheson's script for "The Incredible Shrinking Man." (But of
his film work, I admire Simmons' brutal noir "Shield For Murder";
hard-boiled dialogue was a specialty of his.)
When he entered TV, Simmons was only in his 30s but as an established
screenwriter could afford to be choosy. He became the "star" writer
at Dick Powell's Four Star Productions, first among equals in a
talented pool of contract writers that also included Sam Peckinpah and
"Mission: Impossible"'s Bruce Geller. Simmons' scripts (which he also
produced) for Powell's self-titled prestige anthology drama won a
number of awards, including a Writers Guild award for himself and an
Emmy for Peter Falk. His later work, which included a number of
ambitious unsold pilots, some highly regarded movies of the week, and
a role in the creation of "Banyon" and "Mrs. Columbo," was less
memorable but, as the saying goes, it was the pictures that got
smaller.
If that's not enough, Simmons was a talented amateur magician and a
member of the Magic Castle. He was a fascinating man and I regret
that I wasn't able to spend more time with him.
Here's the link to the L.A. Times obit, with a photo:
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings20.2nov20,1,5585755.story?coll=la-news-obituaries
and the text of the article which, typically, does not do him justice:
Richard Simmons, 80; Writer and Producer in Early Days of Television
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Richard Alan Simmons, 80, a writer and producer from the early days of
television, died Nov. 13 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles. The cause of death was not announced, but he had been in
failing health for some time.
Simmons was best-known for his Emmy-nominated teleplay "The Price of
Tomatoes," which ran on actor Dick Powell's dramatic anthology series
in the early 1960s.
Simmons also received an Emmy nomination for his work on "Columbo" in
1978.
A native of Toronto, Simmons served in the Royal Canadian Air Force
during World War II. After the war, he graduated from the University
of Toronto and then moved to California for a job with NBC radio,
writing news and radio dramas.
He earned writing credits on a number of films, including Clark
Gable's "The King and Four Queens" and Jane Russell's "The Fuzzy Pink
Nightgown."
Simmons turned his attention to television in the early 1960s. In
addition to his writing credits, he was executive producer of the
Peter Falk series "The Trials of O'Brien" and, in the late 1970s and
1980s, produced episodes of Falk's more famous series, "Columbo."