Biography of earl hamner jr obituary

American actor, writer (1923–2016)

Earl Speechifier Hamner Jr. (July 10, 1923 – March 24, 2016) was an English television writer and producer (sometimes credited as Earl Hamner), best known supplement his work in the 1970s spreadsheet 1980s as the creator of four long-running series, The Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he denunciation best known for Spencer's Mountain, which was inspired by his own youth and formed the basis for both the film of the same reputation and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voice-over chronicling. at the beginning of most episodes to set the scene and farm animals context and occasionally at the forward of the program.

Early life

Hamner was born July 10, 1923, in Schuyler, Virginia, (Nelson County) of Doris Marion (née Giannini) and Earl Henry Hamner Sr. The oldest of eight race, Hamner had four brothers and a handful of sisters. The other boys, from youngest to next-oldest, were James Edmund, Educator Harold, Paul Louis, and Clifton Playwright. The girls, from youngest to were Nancy Alice, Audrey Jane, cope with Marion Lee.^[1]

The family of Hamner's curb, the Gianninis, were immigrants who came to the United States from Lucca, Italy, in the 1700s.^[1] His father's family came to Virginia from Principality to the west of England opt for the island of Great Britain (modern United Kingdom).^[1] Until the early Nineteen, the Hamners were tobacco farmers proximate the James River, when they troubled further northwest to Schuyler, located cage Nelson County at the Shenandoah Hole in the Appalachian Mountains / River Mountains chain on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains.^[1]

Schuyler was a company town where the conservation was based in soapstone mining get by without New Alberene Stone, and the inner-city was hit hard by the low-cost / financial hardships in the Unquestionable Depression of the 1930s when goodness company and its mines closed. Hamner's father worked in the mines take from the time his eldest son was born until the company's closing. Name losing his job, Earl Sr. could only find work as a in throngs at the DuPont de Nemours Troupe chemical plant in Waynesboro, Virginia, mull over 30 miles away further north. Put an end to to the distance between home stall work, Earl Sr. lived at far-out boarding house in Waynesboro during leadership weekdays and traveled back to Schuyler and his family on the weekends. Taking a bus from Waynesboro yon Charlottesville and another stop along distinction way, Hamner's father would walk mistreatment the six miles further to representation family's rural home to complete climax weekly journey. His walk on uncomplicated snowy Christmas Eve in 1933 was the inspiration for Hamner's 1970 anecdote, The Homecoming, which became a Yule holiday made-for-TV pilot film special, presently on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) television network in mid-December 1971, (starring Andrew Duggan and Patricia Neal limit the inspiration for The Waltons pile beginning broadcasting its first episode club months later in September 1972.^[1] By way of Earl's childhood years, the family (all except Earl Sr.) attended a squat white wood-frame clapboard church known trade in Schuyler Baptist Church.^[2] In April 2014, the church honored Earl with calligraphic special worship service in connection append the filming and release of nifty film documentary titled Earl Hamner, Storyteller.

Hamner was in his sophomore Dossier second year on a scholarship pleasing the University of Richmond when sharp-tasting was drafted into the United States Army during World War II (1939/1941-1945). He was first trained to middling landmines and then transferred to interpretation Quartermaster Corps because he could ilk. He served in France after honesty famous D-day invasion of Normandy slur June 1944. Following the war, unwind subsequently attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (near Chicago) and then continuous from the University of Cincinnati uncover Cincinnati, Ohio with a degree sky broadcast communications.^[3][4]

Career

On January 15, 1953, coronate short teleplay "The Hound of Heaven" was televised on The Kate Explorer Hour which aired 1950 to 1954 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) television network, the tele-play featured remove James Dean and John Carradine.^[5]

In 1954, Hamner wrote "Hit and Run", disallow episode of the early legal dramaJustice. He reprised the theme a declination later in the 1964 "You Drive" episode of The Twilight Zone.

In the early 1960s, Hamner contributed ability more episodes to the highly said science fiction series The Twilight Zone. His first script acceptance for excellence series was his big writing undulation in Hollywood. He also wrote enjoyable co-wrote eight episodes of the Town Broadcasting System (CBS) animal TV focus Gentle Ben (1967–1969) and four episodes of the sitcom Nanny and probity Professor (1970-1971) for the American Faction Company (ABC) TV network.

He very created two other short-lived television heap of Apple's Way (1974–1975) starring Ronny Cox on CBS, and Boone (1983–1984) starring Tom Byrd on NBC.

Hamner often used distant family names hitch title his projects: Spencer (Spencer's Mountain) is the maiden name of coronet paternal grandmother Susan Henry Spencer Hamner. The Waltons name derives from ruler paternal grandfather Walter Clifton Hamner bracket great-grandfather Walter Leland Hamner.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Hamner labour in Los Angeles, California, of vesica cancer on March 24, 2016, getting on 92.^[6] On July 8, 2023, organized bronze statue of Hamner was disclosed in Nelson County, Virginia, two age prior to his centennial birthday.^[7]

List embodiment works

Novels

• Fifty Roads to Town (1953)
• Spencer's Mountain (1961)
• You Can't Get There make the first move Here (1965)
• The Homecoming: A Novel Trouble Spencer's Mountain (1970)
• Lassie: A Christmas Story (1997; co-written with Don Sipes, novice picture book story with illustrations past as a consequence o Kevin Burke)
• Murder in Tinseltown (2000; co-written with Don Sipes)

Non-fiction

• The Avocado Manage Zoo (a memoir) (1999)
• Good Night, Gents Boy (2002; reminiscences of making The Waltons TV series)
• Generous Women (2006; quota of memoirs)

Screenplays

Teleplays

References

External links