George Clayton Johnson passed away yesterday, Christmas Day, of cancer at the age of 86. While Mr. Johnson’s name may not be familiar to some of you, his work almost certainly is. He wrote eight episodes of The Twilight Zone (plus one unproduced episode) and the first episode of the original Star Trek series to air, “The Man Trap”. He also coauthored Logan’s Run with William F. Nolan. His other credits include scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Honey West, and Kung Fu.
Johnson was a member of the group of writers known as the California school which included (in addition to Nolan) such writers as Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, and Charles Beaumont. He was known for his openness and willingness to assist authors trying to break into the field.
Rest well, sir.
Sigh. Did he only work in screenplays? I’ll need to look up his bibliography.
Subterranean did a collection of his short fiction some years back. I have a copy I bought as part of a sale. Need to dig it out and read it.
I’m a huge fan of the original Logan’s Run novel (the sequels by Nolan alone are weak). Wild stuff and I always felt that Judege Dredd was a ripped it off tremendously.
I’ve never read Judge Dredd (please forgive me), but I read all three of the Logan novels when I was in 8th or 9th grade. I agree, the first one is the best.
Most of my Judge Dredd knowledge comes from the game