David Duncan (writer)
David Duncan ( born February 17, 1913 in Billings, Montana, † December 27, 1999 in Everett, Washington) was an American screenwriter and novel writer. He was known primarily for his work for the two Oscar-winning science fiction film classic of the 1960s The Time Machine and The Fantastic Voyage.
Life and work
David Duncan, the son of the cattle dealer Robert Llewellyn Duncan and his wife Lela Davis made in 1935 graduated from the University of Montana. In 1936 he was finally state examiner at the Department of Agriculture in Washington, from 1936 to 1940 he was a social worker in the administration of the California State Relief Administration in Fresno.
1940 took David Duncan then Mexico, first steps as a freelance writer, but he worked from 1941 to 1943 in addition as a manager in the social housing project Farm Security Administration in California, and later two years as a director in California and Nevada at the American Red Cross. 1944-1946 he worked as an economist at the National Labor's Bureau in San Francisco. Since 1946, Duncan worked then finally as a freelance writer.
1953 Duncan collected then first screenplay experiences in Hollywood as a co -author in movies by Edward Ludwig, as Paramount's first 3 -D film Sangaree or The Treasure of the Jivaro, each with Fernando Lamas in the lead role. After his science fiction novel Dark Dominion was in 1954 reprinted at Collier's Magazine, David Duncan wrote in the late 1950s, a number of scripts for science fiction B-movies such as the U.S. adaptation of the Japanese film The Flying Monster Osaka ( director: Ishiro Honda) and the utopian stories for dramas such as alarm exclusion zone 7 (1957, directed by Arnold Laven ) or the horror creeps through the night (1958, directed by Jack Arnold).
In 1960 he wrote for director George Pal the script of the sci-fi classic The Time Machine with Rod Taylor in the lead role, based on the novel of the popular British writer HG Wells. In 1966 Duncan's screenplay for Richard Fleischer's sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage with Stephen Boyd and Raquel Welch.
In the years 1958 to 1970, David Duncan wrote numerous screenplays for episodes of well-known American television series such as Telephone Time ( 1958), Men Into Space ( 1959-1960 ), Vilma and King ( 1960), My Three Sons ( 1960-1961 ), It 's a Man 's World ( 1962), The Outer Limits (1963 ), FBI (1966 ), The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ( 1968-1969 ) and The High Chaparral (1969). Between 1964 and 1970 alone caused 21 episodes of the successful Western series Daniel Boone with Fess Parker. His last work was the participation in the documentary Time Machine: The Journey Back in 1993.
Duncan was a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
On May 5, 1940 he married the teacher Elaine Sulliger, with whom he had two children.