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A talented writer, producer, and director who was involved with some of the most prolific series in TV history, John Meredyth Lucas was also a founding member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Son of writer/actress Bess Meredyth and prolific actor/director Wilfred Lucas, Lucas was later adopted by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz. Although Curtiz would give young Lucas his first break in Hollywood, the burgeoning talent soon came into his own as the founder of the Laguna Playhouse's Gryphon Players. Later seguing into a career as a writer, Lucas served as dialogue director for The Gorilla Man (1942) and The Unsuspected (1947) before penning the 1950 noir thriller Dark City. He subsequently wrote such films as Peking Express (1951), My Blood Runs Cold (1965), and the made-for-TV feature City Beneath the Sea (1970). Lucas found even more success writing (and frequently directing) episodes of such prolific television series as The Fugitive, Star Trek, Kojak, and Logan's Run. Lucas also wrote and directed episodes of Night Gallery, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Planet of the Apes, in addition to his work as a small-screen producer. He published a memoir, A Hollywood Family, in his later years. Lucas died of leukemia October 19, 2002.