Robert Dozier Passes On

Film and television writer Robert Dozier passed on 6 January 2012 at the age of 81.

Robert Dozier was born in 1930 in Hollywood, California. His father was producer William Dozier, who would later gain his most lasting fame as producer and narrator on the TV series Batman. Mr. Dozier graduated Beverly Hills High School and attended Brown University for a brief time. During World War II he served in the United States Army Signal Corps, where he made documentaries.

Mr. Dozier started out in television writing episodes of Studio One. During the late Fifties he would go onto write for the series Four Star Playhouse, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour,  Front Row Centre, Thriller, Have Gun--Will Travel, and G.E. Theatre.  In the Sixties he wrote the story for the film I Could Go On Singing, and the screenplays for The Cardinal (1963) and The Big Bounce (1969).  He wrote episodes of Espionage, Dan August, The Lieutenant, and Batman. In the Seventies he wrote episodes of Harry O., a series which he also produced. In the Eighties he wrote an episode of The Devlin Connection and produced the series The Contender.  He retired in 1989.

Robert Dozier was a very good writer whose teleplays often portrayed the downtrodden. For instance, one of his scripts for Have Gun--Will Travel centred on an elderly man who believed himself to be Don Quixote, still hoping for knighthood. Mr. Dozier's script for Thriller centred on a young boy who has been neglected by his father. Mr. Dozier wrote "Deal a Blow" for Climax, which dealt with the relationship between a son and his overbearing father. It was later adapted as the motion picture The Young Stranger in 1957. Throughout his career Robert Dozier wrote many fine scripts which upheld the underdog. It's for that he will be remembered as a television and movie writer.