SPELLING, Aaron 1923-2006

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 22, 1923, in Dallas, TX; died of complications from a stroke, June 23, 2006, in Los Angeles, CA. Television producer and author. Spelling was the remarkably successful producer of such popular television series as Dynasty, Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels, Beverly Hills 90210, Family, and 7th Heaven. Growing up in humble circumstances, he was the son of a Texas tailor, and remembered a boyhood of being the target of his anti-Semitic schoolyard peers. To escape this environment, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces after graduating from high school and worked for the Stars and Stripes during World War II. He found himself covering battles and received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star while in the European theater. When the war ended, he studied at Paris's Sorbonne for a year before returning to Texas. Spelling majored in journalism at Southern Methodist University, where he finished a B.A. in 1950. Instead of journalism, however, he pursued a career in theater, writing a play called Thorns in the Road, which he also directed. Finding little success, he moved to Hollywood to become an actor. Here he gained small roles in Westerns and other movies, but discovered that he was not a great talent, so he decided to find work as a writer and producer. By the mid-1950s, Spelling had sold a script to the Zane Grey Theater, and in 1957 was hired as a producer for Four Star Television. His early successes included producing the series Johnny Ringo, The Dick Powell Show, and, in 1963, Burke's Law. He also wrote a television movie screenplay, One Foot in Hell (1960). Establishing himself in television, he partnered with Danny Thomas to form Thomas-Spelling Productions in 1969. Together, they created The Danny Thomas Hour and Spelling's first major hit series, The Mod Squad. By the 1970s, Spelling was on a roll. He found a new partner in Leonard Goldberg, and they created a string of popular television series, including The Rookies, to which Spelling contributed scripts, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Vega$, Hart to Hart, Fantasy Island, Family, and Starsky and Hutch. He wrote television screenplays, too, for the movies Carter's Army (1969) and The Trackers (1971). Spelling set out on his own in 1977, founding Aaron Spelling Productions, Inc. Continuing many of his 1970s series, he also created Dynasty in 1981. From the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, shows produced by Spelling made up about one-third of the American Broadcasting Company's shows, and some people in the industry jokingly called it Aaron's Broadcasting Company. Although his shows were popular with audiences, with the exception of some series like Family, critics denounced them as shallow entertainments. Spelling hit a rough spot in his career by the late 1980s, especially with the cancellation of Dynasty in 1989. He found new success, however, with shows such as Beverly Hills 90210, which found a new teenager market, and then Melrose Place and 7th Heaven. Although rarely gaining approval from television critics, and never winning an Emmy Award, Spelling earned a People's Choice Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He received some respect for producing the Emmy-winning movies Day One (1989) and And the Band Played On (1993), which concerned the series subjects of atomic warfare and AIDS respectively. A millionaire many times over, he was also active in charitable causes, receiving three NAACP awards, a B'nai B'rith Man of the Year Award, and a Winston Churchill Medal of Wisdom for his work. Spelling remained president of his company until 1986, when it was sold to media giant Viacom; he remained chair and chief executive officer, however. Spelling wrote of his experiences in television in his memoir, Aaron Spelling: A Prime Time Life: An Autobiography (1996).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Spelling, Aaron, and Jefferson Graham, Aaron Spelling: A Prime Time Life: An Autobiography, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, June 24, 2006, section 2, p. 11.

Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2006, pp. A1, A9.

New York Times, June 25, 2006, p. A24.

Times (London, England), June 26, 2006, p. 52.