Alvin Sapinsley, 80; TV Writer Was Blacklisted in 1950s

Alvin Sapinsley, 80, a television writer whose career began during the days of live TV in New York in the late 1940s, died of complications of pneumonia July 13 at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills.

Sapinsley’s credits include “The Alcoa Hour,” “Studio One,” “Omnibus,” “The Untouchables,” “The Virginian,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Kojak” and “The Hitchhiker.”

Born in Providence, R.I., he earned a bachelor’s degree from Bard College in 1942. He was a cryptographer aboard the Ancon and was off the coast of Normandy during the D-day invasion.

After the war, he began writing for radio and then moved into television. He was blacklisted for a period in the 1950s for having attended a number of Communist Party meetings, but after teaching writing at a university, he resumed his career writing for television.

Sapinsley, who was active in the Writer’s Guild, received an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1955 for his teleplay “Sting of Death.” He also received the TV Writers Annual Award for “Code Name Heraclitus” for the 1966-67 season.