Fred Freiberger

Fred Freiberger, a veteran film and television writer and producer, died March 2nd, 2003 at his home On Bel Aire, Ca, at the age of 88. A renown name in the credits of the original "Star Trek" series, he was the screenwriter for the movie in episode 517- BEGINNING OF THE END and producer of the TV series "Space: 1999" .
Born in New York City in 1915, he began working in advertising during the late 1930s. Freiberger earned a Purple Heart during World War II when he was shot down over Germany. He spent 22 months as a prisoner of war. When the war was over, Freiberger started working as a movie publicist, but soon turned to screenplay writing. With the coming of television, he wrote for dramatic anthology series such as "Zane Grey" and "Fireside Theatre" and westerns including "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Wanted: Dead or Alive," "Bonanza," "Rawhide" and "The Big Valley."
"The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (1953), the first movie he produced, was based on a Ray Bradbury story. He went on to produced films including "The Weapon" (1956) and 1958's "Crash Landing." Remaining busy in television, he wrote teleplays for, and served as producer of, series including "Ben Casey," "The Wild, Wild West," and "The Six Million Dollar Man."
He was the producer of the second season of "Space: 1999" and the third season of the original "Star Trek" series.
He continued to write for TV well into the 1980s, and you can spot his name in the credits for several episodes of "Sea Hunt 1987," "Starsky and Hutch," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Cagney and Lacey."