Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling will always be remembered as an exceptional American film and television producer, holding the title of the world’s most prolific television producer. Aaron Spelling was also an actor and a writer, and even a one-time director for a 1959 television episode of Wagon Train. He was born in Dallas, Texas on April 22, 1923, and died June 23, 2006, at the age of eighty-three from stroke complications.
Aaron Spelling served with the U.S. Army Air Forces after high school and then attended Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1949. In 1953 he married actress Carolyn Jones and they moved to California where he sold his first written script to Jane Wyman Theater, breaking Spelling into the world of screenwriting. This led to writing projects for producer and director Dick Powell, and also allowed Spelling to join Four Star Productions where he began to write for television programs Playhouse 90 and Last Man. After Dick Powell died in 1963, Aaron Spelling and actor Danny Thomas formed Thomas-Spelling Productions. The Mod Squad was their first major hit. Between 1957 and 1974, Aaron Spelling screen wrote for fourteen productions and programs.
Aaron Spelling and Carolyn Jones divorced in 1965 with no children, and three years later he married Carol Jean Marer, or Candy Spelling. The couple had two children together: Tori Spelling (born Victoria in 1973) and Randy Spelling (born Randall in 1978). Their home in Los Angeles, California is the biggest one-family home in the state.
Aaron Spelling created Aaron Spelling Productions in 1974, as well as another company with producer Leonard Goldberg. In 1986 his company went public as Spelling Entertainment. Aaron Spelling has produced a plethora of productions in both film and television, and has worked on almost two hundred, ranging widely in variation. His most notable and recognized TV contributions include: Starsky and Hutch, which starred David Soul and Paul Glasier, Hotel, Charlie’s Angels, which brought Kate Jackson and Farrah Fawcett to our screens,The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, T.J. Hooker, Beverley Hills 90210 , Melrose Place, starring Kristin Davis, 7th Heaven, Sunset Beach , Charmed, Titans, and Summerland. With all of his successes, Aaron Spelling has claimed that 7th Heaven was his favorite project.
In early 2006, Spelling was sued by his former nurse for claims of sexual harassment, battery, discrimination, assault, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Later in the year, on June 18, he had a severe stroke at home in California and died five days later.
YUDDY
