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A prolific television writer since the early '70s, three-time Emmy nominee Robert W. Lenski scripted such popular television shows as Kojak, Planet of the Apes, and The New Perry Mason in addition to such made-for-television films as Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975) and Roommates (1994). Born in Michigan in 1978, Lenski began his career as a journalist and received a Pulitzer Prize for his skillful reporting of a Southern Michigan prison riot early on. Later moving into television as a scribe for numerous popular shows, Lenski's script for the 1978 miniseries The Dain Curse failed to garner an Emmy, though it did win the writer an Edgar Allan Poe award. Lenski continued to pen numerous teleplays and scripts into the new millennium, with his final effort being A Death in the Family (2001). In June 2002, Lenski died of cancer in his Los Angeles home. He was 76.