Richard Matheson

Richard Burton Matheson is a prolific and highly-acclaimed science fiction writer, who wrote the Star Trek: The Original Series episode,.

Matheson, during his 55 years career of writing both literature and for the screen, authored novels such as "The Shrinking Man" (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), with Matheson's own script, featuring William Schallert and Billy Curtis), and "I Am Legend" (filmed as The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971) with Anthony Zerbe and Brian Tochi, and I Am Legend (2007)). He was also responsible for 16 episodes of , including Nightmare at 20,000 Feet starring William Shatner, Third From the Sun starring Fritz Weaver and Once Upon a Time featuring Stanley Adams. Matheson also wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's debut telefilm, Duel (1971), which featured Gene Dynarski, Charles Seel and Carey Loftin, and the Ray Bradbury miniseries The Martian Chronicles (1980), which featured Bernie Casey and Fritz Weaver.

Apart from this, he wrote for many film and television productions, including series such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Thriller, and the new The Outer Limits ("First Anniversary", with Matt Frewer, Clint Howard and Kevin Conway).

Matheson died on 23 June 2013. He was 87.