Margery Nelson, Link’s wife of more than 40 years, said the cause of death was congestive heart failure.
William Theodore Link was born in Elkins Park, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, on December 15, 1933.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Link was best known for his collaboration with the late Richard Levinson. Together they wrote and produced some of the most important made-for-television films and best-loved series in the history of the medium. Link and Levinson – who first met at the age of 14 and began collaborating almost immediately on stories, radio scripts, and dramas – saw television’s potential to capture the current scene and contribute to the national discussion about such subjects as race relations, student unrest, and gun violence.
My Sweet Charlie (1970) concerned the burgeoning friendship between a white pregnant runaway in her late teens and an African American lawyer wrongly accused of murder. That Certain Summer (1972) presented television’s first sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality. The Execution of Private Slovik (1974) was a powerful account of the only soldier executed for desertion during World War II.
These and other Link and Levinson productions were brave and often controversial films, and the two fought hard to bring these stories to the small screen. Their book Stay Tuned: An Inside Look at the Making of Prime-Time Television (1981) is a fascinating account of how these Davids battled with the Goliaths who ran the major networks of the era. “Each time out we tried to do something that hadn't been seen before,” Link told the New York Times in 1987, “something that would touch an emotional or social chord.''
Link and Levinson shared an abiding love of the mystery genre. Their first professional sale as writers was “Whistle While You Work,” which appeared in the November 1954 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Published during their first year at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the success of that story convinced them that writing – not business – was their true métier.
While Link served in the United States Army from 1956 to 1958 the pair continued collaborating by mail. After his honorable discharge Link and Levinson resumed the writing partnership in person. By the beginning of the 1960s they’d moved to Los Angeles and were writing for such shows as the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Dr. Kildare.
Their stage play Prescription: Murder (1962) featured an eccentric character who reappeared in the 1968 TV movie version and in a subsequent series: a scruffy, seemingly-absent minded police Lieutenant named Columbo. Each episode followed the same engrossing pattern: the viewer sees a murder committed and then watches the game-of-cat and-mouse between the privileged killer and the working-class Lieutenant. Brought to vibrant life by the late Peter Falk, Columbo is a show for the ages, a true classic.
With Levinson and Peter S. Fischer, Link created Murder, She Wrote, which made its network debut in 1984. MSW follows mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher, who lives in Cabot Cove, Maine, but solves crimes wherever she travels. Although network executives weren’t keen on a show with no sex, little violence, and a female protagonist of a certain age, the series was hugely popular and ran for 12 years. Angela Lansbury played Fletcher and is as closely identified with her character as Falk was with Columbo.
Other television series created by Link and Levinson include Jericho (1965), Mannix (1967), Tenafly (1973, one of the first TV shows featuring an African American lead), Ellery Queen (1975), and Blacke’s Magic (1986).
In addition to their television work, Link and Levinson wrote the scripts for the feature films The Hindenburg (1975), Rollercoaster (1977), and Steve McQueen’s last film The Hunter (1980).
In the years following Levinson’s premature death in 1987, Link continued to develop TV series and publish stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
Link and Levinson’s work has been recognized and celebrated around the world, and their awards include two Emmys, two Golden Globes, The Peabody, The Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television Writing, The Image Award from the NAACP, The Media Award from the Alliance of Gay Artists in the Entertainment Industry, The Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame, four Edgar Allan Poe Awards and The Ellery Queen Award for Life Time Achievement in Mystery Writing from the Mystery Writers of America.
Additionally, Link and Levinson were inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1994.
In 2018 Link was given the highest award MWA can offer: Grand Master status for the longevity and quality of his contributions to the genre.
Critic and novelist William De Andrea characterized Link and Levinson’s career as “the most honored and productive collaboration in television history.” The New York Times once called the two lifelong friends “The Mr. Rolls and Mr. Royce of American Television.”
Link is survived by his wife Margery Nelson, whom he married in 1980, and by his nieces and nephews Amy Salko Robertson and John Robertson, Karen Salko Nieberg and Owen Nieberg, and, his grandchildren, Anabelle Robertson, Bennett, Fin, and Levi Nieberg, and his sisters-in-law, Elizabeth Nelson and Laurie Nelson and Brother-in-law, Jonathan P. Nelson.
Due to current restrictions, the funeral will be for immediate family only. A memorial Service will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to http://www.chemotherapyfoundation.org/ Bill was particularly impressed with their work and the work they have done recently on the frontlines to aid in the fight against Covid-19.
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