Jack Laird

Described by his peers as brilliant, eccentric, at times reclusive. Jack Laird was a technical mastermind. A prolific and versatile writer, throughout his career, he involved himself in all areas of the performing arts. Born and raised in a small California town on May 8, 1923, Laird's career in show business began at a young age when a film company came to his city, and casted Laird and his family in a silent film. From then on, he was hooked on show business. While a student at Pasadena Junior College, he had formed his dance band, his group would be made up of players who would later join the likes of Stan Kenton, Benny Goldman, and Les Brown, but the group broke up when Laird enlisted in the Army Air Force during World War II, he was assigned as a pilot in the Ninth Air Force, and served with the First Allied Airborne while stationed in Manchester, England. Upon his discharge from the Army, Laird had resumed civilian life in New York, where he enrolled at the Dramatic Workshop, and had studied playwrighting under John Gassner. During lean periods he worked on Broadway, and as a staff artist for the New York Times. He returned to Hollywood where he starred in a series of theatre, movie, television, and radio roles, while at the same time, he began writing and selling scripts on the side for radio, and the burgeoning medium of television, working on shows such as "Racket Squad", "Fireside Theatre", "Kraft Theatre", "Ford Theatre", "Waterfront", "Private Secretary", "Mr. District Attorney", "China Smith", "The Lone Ranger", "M Squad", "The Millionaire", "The Ann Sothern Show", and "Have Gun, Will Travel", among many other popular television shows at the time. The 1960's would see Laird distinguishing himself as a writer and story editor for the medical show "Ben Casey", eventually becoming an associate producer under show producers Matthew Rapf and James Moser, Laird would receive an Emmy nomination in 1962 for his work on the "Ben Casey" episode "I Remember a Lemon Tree". In 1963, he was offered a full producer post on "Ben Casey", but he turned it down when he was given a chance to write and produce a variety of both film and television projects for Universal Studios. Beginning in the 1970's, Laird came into his own as a writer, director, and producer, working on the crime drama series "The Bold Ones: The Protectors" which had starred Leslie Nielsen and Hari Rhodes. "The Psychiatrist" starring Roy Thinnes, and most notably, "Night Gallery", in which Laird had served as a writer, producer, actor, and director. He poured his heart and soul into every aspect of "Night Gallery", casting, set and costume designs, music scoring, editing, and meticulously spending countless hours at his typewriter drafting and redrafting scripts. He famously didn't get along with show creator Rod Serling, often clashing over the nature of the show. After "Night Gallery" wrapped up, Laird would work on the action crime drama "Kojak" starring Telly Savalas, working as a writer and producer throughout the shows run. He also worked on the medical show "Doctors' Hospital" starring George Peppard, and the detective show "Switch" starring Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert. Throughout his career, Laird was most importantly known for giving career breaks for new or already established writers, actors, producers, composers, and directors, among those were talent such as Sydney Pollack, Mark Rydell, Steven Spielberg, John Badham, Gil Mellé, Jeannot Szwarc, Diane Keaton, among many others, Laird even gave actor Leonard Nimoy his first directing job on a third season "Night Gallery" episode "Death on a Barge". Outside of work, Laird had a passion for the arts, cinema, and music. He was a fan of jazz music, and a cinephile, collecting hundreds of rare and vintage films, an act of preservation on his part. The 1980's would see Laird's career slow down, but he continued to work, he was a writer and executive producer on "Hellinger's Law", a 1981 TV movie starring "Kojak" star Telly Savalas, he was a producer on "The Gangster Chronicles", a historically-based crime drama about the lives of Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, and Meyer Lansky, and he had worked as a writer on "Whiz Kids", "Hell Town", and "The Insiders", among other shows. In 1990, Laird's final produced credits would be on three projects, two "Kojak" TV movies, "It's Always Something", and "None So Blind", and a made-for-television movie "The Bride in Black" for which Laird would be credited as co-writer on the story. Laird died on December 3, 1991 at the age of 68.