John Meredyth Lucas


John Meredyth Lucas was an American writer, director and producer, primarily for television.

Career

Son of screenwriter Bess Meredyth and writer/director Wilfred Lucas, and the adopted son of director Michael Curtiz, Lucas grew up in Southern California, where he attended a number of schools, including Urban Military Academy, Southwestern Military Academy, Pacific Military Academy, and Beverly Hills High School. After a failed attempt at college, he began his Hollywood career with a job as an apprentice script clerk at Warner Brothers.
He is best remembered for the work he did on as a writer, producer and director. He wrote four episodes for the Star Trek series broadcast from 1967 to 1969, "The Changeling |The Changeling", "Patterns of Force |Patterns of Force", "Elaan of Troyius", and "That Which Survives". He also directed the 1968 Star Trek episodes "The Ultimate Computer", "The Enterprise Incident" and "Elaan of Troyius". The last episode was the only one in the original series to be directed by its writer. Lucas was also credited as producer for the latter part of the .
He also wrote for Mannix, The Fugitive, The Silent Force, Harry O,The Six Million Dollar Man, and the television adaptations of Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run. Dark City and Peking Express were among his feature film writing credits. During 1959–1960 he worked in Australia on the TV series Whiplash, directing numerous episodes of the series.
In 1951 he married Australian born actress Joan Winfield. Together they raised three children. After her death in 1978, he remarried. He died in Los Angeles on 19 October 2002 from a leukemia. After his death in 2002, he was cremated and his ashes were later launched into space on a suborbital flight in 2007. They were subsequently launched on an orbital flight on August 2, 2008, however the rocket failed two minutes after launch.

Star Trek episode credits

Films

Television