Celebrity Biographies
Stephen J Cannell
Stephen J. Cannell was a prolific producer and creator of television series. From his pen came The Great American Hero and The A-Team , the film version of which he had just produced. Cannell passed away on Friday, October 1, at his residence in Pasadena, California, due to complications from the melanoma he suffered from. He was 69 years old.
Born on February 5, 1941, in Los Angeles (California), Stephen Joseph Cannell was the son of the owners of a chain of furniture stores. When he was in school he discovered that he was dyslexic, and with much effort he ended up earning a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.
Although he spent many years in the family business, Cannell did not stop until Universal hired him as a writer for the It Takes a Thief series . Soon after, he was writing episodes for more well-known series such as Ironside and Colombo . He went on to write scripts for some 450 television episodes, and created The Rockford Cases , Two Against Crime , America’s Greatest Hero , Young Cops , Cobra , and The A-Team .
In recent years he devoted himself to writing mystery novels. In addition, he appeared as an actor in the series Castle , where he played himself, facing Nathan Fillion , the protagonist, who plays a successful author of crime novels, in poker games.
For 46 years he was married to Marcia Frinch, whom he met in high school, and with whom he had three children. “Apart from being a legendary television producer and a prolific writer, Stephen was also a devoted husband, a great father and grandfather, and a loyal friend,” a statement released by his family explains. It is necessary to mention that after overcoming his dyslexia, he was a great activist who helped people with learning disabilities.