Aside from Ray Bradbury–who needless to say was in a class by himself–few authors are as associated in the broad public mind with golden age fantasy and science fiction as Richard Matheson. While there are many authors famous to sci-fi nerds, Matheson wrote novels like I Am Legend, Somewhere in Time and The Incredible Shrinking Man that were turned into successful, in some cases classic, movies. He also wrote a ton of short stories which also were adapted into movies and television work, often by himself. These include Prey, the tale which became the basis for the memorable Zuni Fetish Doll finale of Trilogy of Terror.
Mr. Matheson was for decades a extraordinarily busy scriptwriter. On TV he worked on many shows, but is best remembered for his scripts for 16 classic Twilight Zone episodes. These included Terror at 20,000 Feet, which saw William Shatner menaced by a in-flight gremlin. He also wrote The Enemy Within episode of Star Trek, which saw Kirk split into good and bad halves of himself. Matheson also basically ran the ’70s horror anthology Circle of Fear.
For the cinema, Mr. Matheson was a frequent collaborator with Roger Corman, scripting most of the Vincent Price films purportedly based on the works of E.A. Poe. Other films he wrote included Burn, Witch, Burn and The Devil Rides Out and Duel and The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler and The Legend of Hell House (based on his novel) and Scream of the Wolf and the Jack Palance TV Dracula movie and The Martian Chronicles mini-series and…well, a lot, lot more.
Mr. Matheson served as an infantry soldier in the European theater in World War II, which served as the basis of his novel The Beardless Warriors. He was 87 at the time of his passing.
