Stephen J. Cannell, prolific TV producer, dies
Stephen J. Cannell, bestselling novelist and Emmy-winning TV producer of hits like “The Rockford Files” and “21 Jump Street,” died at his Pasadena home of complications of melanoma on Thursday. He was 69.
Cannell’s family released the following statement about the producer who wrote for iconic series including “Adam-12,” “Mission: Impossible” and “It Takes a Thief” before founding a company that churned out classic action adventure series “The A-Team,” “The Greatest American Hero” and a string of other franchises:
Cannell, who famously wrote scripts on an old IBM Selectric typewriter, told Success magazine recently that he’d been getting up at 4 a.m. for 40 years to write and that he never tired of the process, even though he’d battled dyslexia as a youngster. (He employed what he called “a mop and pail crew” to clean up his prose.)
“One of my work ethic traits comes from the fact that I absolutely love what I do. I’ve never felt that writing was work,” he told the publication. “I get up every morning, and I’m not going to work, I’m going to play. I get to play cops and robbers.”
His latest novel, “The Prostitutes’ Ball,” the 10th in the Shane Scully series, is set for publication Oct. 12.