SAN FRANCISCO, December 30, (THEWILL) – Popular American television writer and producer, William Link, is dead at the age of 87.
Margery Nelson, wife of the deceased told Deadline.com that Link who is a co-creator of classic television series, Columbo and Murder By the Book, died on December 27 from congestive heart failure in Los Angeles.
Steven Spielberg, director of the first episode of Columbo in 1971, “Murder by the Book”, shared a personal remembrance of Link.
“Bill’s truly good nature always inspired me to do good work for a man who, along with Dick Levinson, was a huge part of what became my own personal film school on the Universal lot. Bill was one of my favourite and most patient teachers and, more than anything, I learned so much from him about the true anatomy of a plot.
“I caught a huge break when Bill and Dick trusted a young, inexperienced director to do the first episode of Columbo. That job helped convince the studio to let me do Duel, and with all that followed I owe Bill so very, very much. My thoughts are with Margery and his entire family,” Spielberg said in a statement.
THEWILL writes that Link was born in Elkins Park, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, on December 15, 1933.
