Robert Gary

Robert Gary, born Robert Leroy Cratty, Jr. in Illinois, was a script supervisor on Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was also a second unit script supervisor on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. He was one of the first male script supervisors in Hollywood.

Gary's first production as a script supervisor was the 1956 western The Searchers, which starred Jeffrey Hunter and featured stunts by Dick Dial. This was followed by two more western films: Friendly Persuasion in 1956 (which featured Chuck Courtney, Billy Curtis, Richard Hale, Peter Mark Richman, and William Schallert, stunts by Loren Janes, and assistant direction by Austen Jewell) and Quantrill's Raiders in 1958 (which featured stunts by Al Wyatt). Gary also worked on the 1958 war film Darby's Rangers (which featured Corey Allen, Torin Thatcher, and William Wellman, Jr., and stunts by Dick Crockett and Bob Herron) and the acclaimed, Academy Award-winning 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank (which co-starred Richard Beymer).

From 1959 through 1962, Gary was a frequent script supervisor on the CBS television series Perry Mason. This show's previous script supervisor was Cosmo Genovese, who also went on to work on Star Trek: Voyager. Genovese returned to Perry Mason after Gary left in 1962. During a break from Perry Mason, Gary was script supervisor on the 1962 fantasy film The Magic Sword, which co-starred Gary Lockwood and Liam Sullivan and which included a score composed by Franz Bachelin.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Gary worked on seven films from director Robert Aldrich. Among them were What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962; with cinematoraphy by Ernest Haller, makeup by Monty Westmore, and stunts by Carol Daniels), 4 for Texas (1963; with a performance by Abraham Sofaer and stunts by Bill Catching, Chuck Hicks, Roy Jenson, Hal Needham, Jack Perkins, and Charlie Picerni), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964; featuring performances by William Campbell and John Megna), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), and The Grissom Gang (1971; with performances by Kim Darby, Robert Lansing, Hal Baylor, and Don Keefer, music by Gerald Fried, stunts by Dick Durock and Jesse Wayne, and hair styling by Jean Austin). John LaSalandra, later a music editor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was construction coordinator on the latter three films.

Gary's other film credits include The Strangler (1964, with performances by Byron Morrow and James B. Sikking) and Big Daddy (1969, with performances by Tanya Lemani and Ned Romero and effects work by Wah Chang). From 1972 onward, Gary worked solely in television, including the final season of Lassie and various episodes of shows such as The Waltons, Trapper John, M.D., Falcon Crest, Dynasty, CHiPs, and Fame. (TNG and DS9 writer-producer Ira Steven Behr was also a script supervisor on Fame.) Most recently, Gary was a script supervisor on the long-running NBC medical drama ER.

Gary was an instructor of script supervision at the University of California at Los Angeles' School of Theater, Film and Television for over a decade. He also taught at the University of Southern California and out of his apartment located near Paramount Studios in Hollywood. He was a board member and treasurer of IATSE Local 871. Gary died at a nursing home in Los Angeles on 3 May 2010. He was 90 years old.