Stephen Joseph Cannell (; February 5, 1941 – September 30, 2010) was an American television producer, writer, novelist, actor, and founder of Cannell Entertainment (formerly Stephen J. Cannell Productions) and The Cannell Studios.
After starting his career as a television screenwriter, Cannell created or co-created several dozen successful TV series from the 1970s to the 1990s, often with his creative partner Frank Lupo. Cannell's creations include The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Renegade, The Greatest American Hero, 21 Jump Street, Hunter, and The Commish. He also wrote novels, notably the Shane Scully mystery series.
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Early life
Cannell was born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby Pasadena. He was the son of Carolyn (née Baker) and Joseph Knapp Cannell. Joseph owned the highly successful interior decorating company Cannell and Chaffin. Cannell struggled with dyslexia in school, but did graduate from the University of Oregon in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism. At UO, he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity.
The 2009 documentary Dislecksia: The Movie features an interview with Cannell, in which he discusses his struggles with dyslexia and how he managed to be such a successful writer despite his difficulties reading. During the interview, he mentions how he used to hire typists to overcome his "spelling problem" (as he refers to his dyslexia) but also describes how he feels his condition has enriched his life.
Career
After college Cannell spent four years working with the family business before selling his first script to the Universal series It Takes a Thief in 1968. He was quickly hired by Universal Television, the television production branch of Universal Studios and was soon freelance writing for such other crime shows as Ironside (1970–1971) and Columbo (1973).
In 1971, he received a telephone call from friend Herman Saunders who was the producer on Jack Webb's police series Adam-12. They needed a script right away and Saunders asked if Cannell would be interested in writing it. He delivered what they wanted in one day, his first full-time gig, and was soon hired as story editor of the series, then in its fourth season, until 1973.
For Universal Television, Cannell created or co-created Chase (1973–1974), The Rockford Files (1974–1980), Baretta (1975–1978), City of Angels (1976), and Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976–1978). His work on police and private investigator-oriented projects changed the prevailing tone from the then-popular "police procedural" pioneered by Jack Webb, to quirky, looser-themed personal stories, such as "Rockford" and "Baretta." He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1978 for The Rockford Files.
In a 2002 interview, Cannell described his early financial arrangements, saying that at Universal,
I signed a deal as a head writer to make $600 a week. I was the cheapest writer on the lot. It was the lowest deal you could do by Writers Guild standards. But I'd been working for my dad for $7000 a year. I was at Universal for eight years and I never renegotiated my deal but once. It was late in my arrangement with Universal. There was one thing in my deal that my agent had managed to get in there—I had good fees for my pilots. The reason they did it is that they never thought I was going to write a pilot. So they'd give me $70,000 to write a two-hour pilot and a $100,000 production bonus if it ever got made. Then I became the hottest pilot writer at Universal. I was writing two or three pilots a season. I was making $400,000 a year in pilot fees.
In 1979, Cannell left Universal and formed his own company, Stephen J. Cannell Productions. For the first few years, Cannell's office was located on the lot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, though his earlier work at Universal was still distributed by MCA-Universal. His first series under his new banner was Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980), and was soon followed by The Greatest American Hero (1981–1983), The Quest (1982), The A-Team (1983–1987), Hardcastle and McCormick (1983–1986), Riptide (1984–1986), and Hunter (1984–1991). Cannell's offices relocated to larger facilities on Hollywood Boulevard in 1983.
Personal life
Cannell married his high school sweetheart, Marcia Finch, in 1964. He "asked her to go steady (with him) in the eighth grade". They had two daughters, Tawnia and Chelsea, and two sons, Cody and Derek. Derek died in 1982 at age 15 when a sand castle he was building at the beach collapsed and suffocated him. The tragedy occurred during the filming of the "Captain Bellybuster" episode of The Greatest American Hero. Actor William Katt, who is a musician, wrote a song for Cannell titled "Cody the Cowboy". Cannell was so touched by this gift that he named his next son Cody in honor of the song.
Cannell was dyslexic and was a spokesman on the subject. According to an episode of Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story, Cannell frequently had to dictate ideas or even complete scripts with the help of his personal secretary Grace Curcio, an employee of 20 years. Following Curcio's retirement in 2003, Kathy Ezso became his editor and executive assistant. He discusses his experiences as a dyslexic in the 2009 documentary Dislecksia: The Movie.
Cannell wrote on a typewriter, an IBM Selectric, when not dictating to an assistant, and only used a computer for research purposes.
Cannell was 69 when he died on September 30, 2010, from complications of melanoma. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. In tribute to his memory, the producers of Castle ended their third-season episode "Punked" with a new version of Cannell's production company logo, which featured video of Cannell at his typewriter tossing out a typed sheet, over a caption reading, "Stephen J. Cannell. Colleague. Mentor. Friend. We'll miss you, pal." The episode aired October 11, 2010 on ABC.
Selected filmography
Ironside (1970) (writer)
The D.A. (1971)
Adam-12 (1971–1973) (story editor)
Chase (1973) (creator)
Columbo (1973) (writer)
Toma (1973)
The Rockford Files (1974–1980) (co-creator, with Roy Huggins)
Switch (1975) (writer)
Baretta (1975) (creator)
City of Angels (1976) (co-creator, with Roy Huggins)
Richie Brockelman, Private Eye (co-creator, with Steven Bochco) (1976)
Baa Baa Black Sheep (a.k.a. Black Sheep Squadron) (1976–1978) (creator)
The Duke (1979)
Stone (1980) (co-creator, with Richard Levinson and William Link)
Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980) (creator; first series as an independent)
The Greatest American Hero (1981–1983) (creator)
Midnight Offerings (1981) (TV movie; executive producer only)
The Quest (1982) (co-executive producer; series created by Juanita Bartlett)
The Rousters (1983) (creator)
Distribution
Cannell sold his company in March 1995 to New World Communications for $30 million and News Corporation acquired New World in 1996. However, two of Cannell's series, The A-Team and Hunter are controlled by two other studios: Universal Television for the former and Sony Pictures Television for the latter and were not part of the deal. Also part of the deal, Cannell would pay Fox for international and domestic sales for his series. On May 4, 1998, Cannell reacquired his library from Fox.
On January 24, 2006, The Carsey-Werner Company acquired distribution rights to Cannell's library.
In March 2020, the Cannell estate signed a worldwide distribution deal with Shout! Factory.
Notable acting credits
All My Children (1985) TV series, as Himself (guest role).
Magnum, P.I. (1986) TV series, as Hotel Detective / Security Chief Ray Lemon (guest role).
Renegade (1992–1997) as Donald "Dutch" Dixon (Series regular). Also show's creator.
Diagnosis: Murder (1997–1999) TV series, as Jackson Burley (guest role)
Pacific Blue (1999–2000) TV series, as Judge J. Gunnar Halloran (guest role)
Half Past Dead (2002) Steven Seagal film, as Frank Hubbard
Ice Spiders (2007) made-for-TV movie, as Frank Stone
Castle (2009) TV series, recurring guest role as Himself
Books
Shane Scully series
Other novels
