George Slavin; Prolific Writer for Movie, TV in Many Genres

George F. Slavin, a prolific Hollywood writer who authored 21 motion pictures and more than 200 television shows from the 1940s into the 1980s, has died at the age of 85.

Slavin died Thursday in Los Angeles, his family said.

His 1957 script for an “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode titled “The Indestructible Mr. Weems” earned a Writers Guild of America television award, and one of his plays, “And the Last Shall Be First,” received a Maxwell Anderson Playwriting Award.

Born in Newark, N.J., and educated at Bucknell University and the Yale Graduate School of Drama, Slavin wrote for radio before serving as a pilot in World War II.

He put some of his wartime observations to use in writing scripts for MGM. Among his early motion pictures were “Intrigue” in 1947,starring George Raft as an ex-military man, and the 1950 film “Mystery Submarine,” featuring MacDonald Carey destroying a Nazi sub.

During the 1950s, Slavin churned out Westerns for the large and small screen, including such films as “The Nevadan” with Randolph Scott and “The Halliday Brand” with Joseph Cotten. He also wrote for such television series as “Maverick” and “Bonanza.”

But Slavin never felt bound by any single genre and, concentrating on TV beginning in the 1960s, wrote for such varied series as “Star Trek,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “The Untouchables,” “The Flying Nun,” “Barnaby Jones,” “Happy Days” and “Charlie’s Angels.”

The writer is survived by his wife, Louise; two sons, Stewart and Tracy; and three granddaughters. Services will be private.