Richard Matheson
Birth : 1926-02-20, Allendale, New Jersey, USA
Death : 2013-06-23
History
Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.
He is best known as the author of I Am Legend, a 1954 science fiction horror novel that has been adapted for the screen three times, the first of which, The Last Man on Earth, was co-scripted by him and starred Vincent Price. (The other two adaptations are The Omega Man with Charlton Heston and I Am Legend with Will Smith.) Matheson also wrote 16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel", as well as several adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories for Roger Corman and American International Pictures – House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror and The Raven. He adapted his 1971 short story "Duel" as a screenplay directed by Steven Spielberg for the television film Duel that year.
In addition, to I Am Legend and Duel, nine more of his novels and short stories have been adapted as motion pictures: The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man), Hell House (filmed as The Legend of Hell House), What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return (filmed as Somewhere in Time), A Stir of Echoes, Steel (filmed as Real Steel), and Button, Button (filmed as The Box). The movie Cold Sweat was based on his novel Riding the Nightmare, and Les seins de glace ("Icy Breasts") was based on his novel Someone is Bleeding. Both Steel and Button, Button had previously been episodes of The Twilight Zone.
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Writer
Six episodes of the original series, restored and on the big screen for the first time, and a special retrospective documentary encompass this Fathom Event.
Self
A fascinating quest for proof of life after death -- a true-life enigma that begins with one small, odd incident and mushrooms into a huge scientific inquiry into apparent messages from the 'Other Side.'
Story
Charlie Kenton is a washed-up fighter who retired from the ring when robots took over the sport. After his robot is trashed, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son to rebuild and train an unlikely contender.
Self
A documentary about one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 1950s and 1960s. Charles Beaumont was responsible for penning some of the most memorable Twilight Zone episodes before his untimely death at age 38.
Original Story
Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. However pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.
Screenplay
Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone.
Novel
In post apocalyptic LA being rampaged by zombie like cannibals humans that have some kind of genetic infection local man renchard is forced to live a daily struggle as he trys to locate radio signals and find a cure.
Short Story
Jules Walters' unhealthy obsession with vampires leads to his dismissal from school. But when he steals a bat from the local zoo, his obsession may lead to his demise.
Story
In a post apocalyptic society, seventeen year-old Peggy lives with her over-protective mother and works in the family restaurant. When two couples of punks enter the restaurant, and one takes an interest in her, Peggy makes a decision that will change her life forever.
Self
Documentary about the great 1940s horror movie producer Val Lewton, featured on the 2005 DVD release "The Val Lewton Horror Collection."
Novel
After being hypnotized by his sister in law, Tom Witzky begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.
Novel
Chris Neilson dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. There is one thing missing: his wife. After he dies, his wife, Annie killed herself and went to hell. Chris decides to risk eternity in hades for the small chance that he will be able to bring her back to heaven.
Story
Three tales of terror: in "The Graveyard Rats" lovers murder the woman's older husband and encounter horror when they attempt to rob his grave; "Bobby" is the story of a woman who summons her son back from the dead; and in "He Who Kills" an African doll goes on a murderous rampage.
Screenplay
Three tales of terror: in "The Graveyard Rats" lovers murder the woman's older husband and encounter horror when they attempt to rob his grave; "Bobby" is the story of a woman who summons her son back from the dead; and in "He Who Kills" an African doll goes on a murderous rampage.
Teleplay
James Earl Jones hosts this film based on two stories by the late Rod Serling, who wrote the stories of the original 'The Twilight Zone' (1959) series. In "The Theater," a young woman attends a movie theater only to find that her life story is being revealed on the screen. In "Where the Dead Are," a Boston surgeon in 1868 searches for a scientist who may have the answer to a medical mystery.
Writer
Mac, the two-fisted, savvy cop finds that he's being saddled with a new partner, a known burnout, to work with him on a new and difficult case. The new partner is Ellis, an amazing detective, one who puts Sherlock Holmes to shame with his lightning-fast deductions. But he keeps assuming the personalities of entire casts of Television shows. This can be a problem when people begin shooting at them.
Screenplay
This third film in the series follows a group of marine biologists attempting to capture a young great white shark that has wandered into Florida's Sea World Park. However, later it is discovered that the shark's 35-foot mother is also a guest at Sea World. What follows is the shark wreaking havoc on the visitors in the park.
Screenplay
An anthology film presenting remakes of three episodes from the TV series "Kick the Can", "It's a Good Life" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and featuring one original story "Time Out".
Original Story
An anthology film presenting remakes of three episodes from the TV series "Kick the Can", "It's a Good Life" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and featuring one original story "Time Out".
Novel
After being exposed to a bizarre mixture of household chemicals, Pat Kramer begins to shrink. This baffles scientists, makes parenting difficult, warms the hearts of Americans, and captures the attention of a group of people who want to take over the world. This evil group plots to kidnap Pat and perform experiments on her so that they can eventually shrink everyone.
Screenplay
Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, by self-hypnosis he manages to travel back in time—where he meets her.
Novel
Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, by self-hypnosis he manages to travel back in time—where he meets her.
Original Story
This anthology tells three stories: a man buys a car that takes him back and forth through time; a tale of vampires; and a distraught mother asks for her drowned son to come back to life and gets more than she bargained for.
Writer
This anthology tells three stories: a man buys a car that takes him back and forth through time; a tale of vampires; and a distraught mother asks for her drowned son to come back to life and gets more than she bargained for.
Associate Producer
A houswife, tired of her everyday routine, makes changes in her hair, her wardrobe and her makeup, and begins to take on the personality of a woman who had died five years earlier.
Writer
A houswife, tired of her everyday routine, makes changes in her hair, her wardrobe and her makeup, and begins to take on the personality of a woman who had died five years earlier.
Story
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college professor is aggressively pursued by one of her students; a prudish brunette determines that her free-spirited blonde sister is evil; and a woman's night turns upside down after she purchases an ancient Zuni fetish doll.
Screenplay
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college professor is aggressively pursued by one of her students; a prudish brunette determines that her free-spirited blonde sister is evil; and a woman's night turns upside down after she purchases an ancient Zuni fetish doll.
Senator #3 (uncredited)
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
Teleplay
Who is the father of Ann Collins’ baby? Her husband had a vasectomy years ago. And Ann hasn’t been with another man. Even more mysterious: as the baby grows inside her, Ann begins to change. She is beset by strange illnesses, pours tablespoons of salt on her food, turns the thermostat to 50 degrees, speed-reads academic tomes. But much bigger shocks are yet to come. Barbara Eden stars in this hypnotic, swiftly paced blend of horror and sci-fi from Richard Matheson, the popular and prolific writer who also penned the novel I AM LEGEND and several notable THE TWILIGHT ZONE scripts.
Short Story
Who is the father of Ann Collins’ baby? Her husband had a vasectomy years ago. And Ann hasn’t been with another man. Even more mysterious: as the baby grows inside her, Ann begins to change. She is beset by strange illnesses, pours tablespoons of salt on her food, turns the thermostat to 50 degrees, speed-reads academic tomes. But much bigger shocks are yet to come. Barbara Eden stars in this hypnotic, swiftly paced blend of horror and sci-fi from Richard Matheson, the popular and prolific writer who also penned the novel I AM LEGEND and several notable THE TWILIGHT ZONE scripts.
Novel
On a beach in Nice, François meets the mysterious Peggy and falls in love with her. Following her to a villa, he meets Marc, a lawyer who has a strange relationship with the girl.
Writer
Dracula is searching for a woman who looks like his long dead wife.
Teleplay
A successful public relations man's refusal to admit his alcoholism jeopardizes his career, his family and his life. ABC Movie of the Week.
Teleplay
A big-game hunter comes out of retirement to help track down a killer wolf, and begins to suspect that it isn't a wolf but an animal that can take human form.
Short Story
A married couple are traveling on a deserted desert road at night. They stop at a diner and the husband goes to the men's room. He never returns and the wife begins to suspect serious foul play.
Teleplay
A married couple are traveling on a deserted desert road at night. They stop at a diner and the husband goes to the men's room. He never returns and the wife begins to suspect serious foul play.
Screenplay
A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove/disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House.
Novel
A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove/disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House.
Writer
After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he is on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer kills a certain number of people, drains them of their blood and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
Teleplay
Wisecracking reporter Carl Kolchak investigates a string of gruesome murders in Las Vegas. It seems that each victim has been bitten in the neck and drained of all their blood. Kolchak is sure that it is a vampire. He's hot on the trail, but nobody believes him. His editor thinks he's nuts and the police think he's a hindrance in the investigation, so Kolchak takes matters into his own hand.
Story
Traveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.
Screenplay
Traveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.
Novel
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain - sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.
Novel
During the Korean War, Joe Moran, is convicted for striking a colonel. Imprisoned in Germany he encounters his former company commander Captain Ross, jailed for black marketeering. Together with Ross' cohorts Joe agrees to escape with them, but things go wrong and a policeman is killed. An appalled Joe escapes by himself, abandoning the others, who are recaptured. Years later Joe has a boat rental business where he is found by Ross. Now a wanted drug smuggler he wants the use of Joe's boats and to ensure his cooperation, they kidnap his wife and daughter.
Screenplay
The 18th-century French marquis recalls his sadomasochistic experiments and goes to jail for lewd behavior.
Screenplay
The powers of good are pitted against the forces of evil as the Duc de Richelieu wrestles with the charming but deadly Satanist, Mocata, for the soul of his friend. Mocata has the knowledge and the power to summon the forces of darkness and, as the Duc de Richelieu and his friends remain within the protected pentacle, they are subjected to ever-increasing horror until thundering hooves herald the arrival of the Angel of Death.
Writer
In World War II, a tough sergeant is put in charge of a squad of young recruits and assigned to lead them on a mission against the Germans.
Novel
First the atomic war broke out, new machines were made, dead birds appeared. In 1999, a bacteriological warfare began, there were sandstorms and giant locust infestations; the human tissue was transformed and a new being, once legendary, now real, emerged: the vampire. Only Robert Neville, the last man on Earth, remains unpolluted, living in constant struggle with the new inhabitants of the planet.
Screenplay
A young woman is terrorized by her fiance's demented mother who blames her for her son's death.
Screenplay
When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.
Novel
When a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.
Associate Producer
An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.
Author
An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.
Screenplay
An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced to pay one year's back-rent. To get money he starts to kill people, which brings absurd results.
Screenplay
A magician who has been turned into a raven turns to a former sorcerer for help.
Screenplay
Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.
Writer
A skeptical college professor discovers that his wife has been practicing magic for years. Like the learned, rational fellow he is, he forces her to destroy all her magical charms and protective devices, and stop that foolishness. He isn't put off by her insistence that his professional rivals are working magic against him, and her protections are necessary to his career and life.
Writer
White magic practitioner Amos Wilder kills himself after securing his nephew's sworn promise to guard his body against evil spirits. The nephew must never leave his uncle's mansion, to protect the shire from the return of black necromancer Bentley, cast back to Hell by Wilder.
Screenplay
Francis Barnard goes to Spain, when he hears his sister Elizabeth has died. Her husband Nicholas Medina, the son of the most brutal torturer of the Spanish Inquisition, tells him she has died of a blood disease, but Francis finds this hard to believe. After some investigating he finds out that it was extreme fear that was fatal to his sister and that she may have been buried alive!
Screenplay
A mad genius tries to bomb the world into peace.
Writer
After a long journey, Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one, Madeline. Upon arriving, however, he discovers that Madeline and her brother Roderick Usher have been afflicted with a mysterious malady: Roderick's senses have become painfully acute, while Madeline has become catatonic. That evening, Roderick tells his guest of an old Usher family curse: any time there has been more than one Usher child, all of the siblings have gone insane and died horrible deaths. As the days wear on, the effects of the curse reach their terrifying climax.
Writer
A group of beatniks unwittingly harbor a serial rapist. A cop goes after him after his wife is attacked.
Screenplay
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
Novel
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.
