George Clayton Johnson

He is also known for his work in television, writing screenplays for such noted series as The Twilight Zone and Star Trek.

Born in a barn, he had to repeat the sixth grade and dropped out of school entirely in the eighth. He briefly served as a telegraph operator then draftsman in the Army, enrolled at now Auburn University under the G.I. Bill, quit to return to his travels around the U.S.A., working as an draftsman, before deciding he wanted to become a writer. In 1960 the first story Johnson ever wrote served as the basis for the Rat Pack movie Ocean's Eleven, although most of the details were changed for the film. He joined a circle of Southern California science-fiction writers that included William F. Nolan, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury. Through them he met Rod Serling, to whom he sold his first story ("All of us Are Dying", produced as The Four of Us Are Dying) and, later, his first teleplay (A Penny for Your Thoughts).

His support for the legalization of marijuana is also well known.

"For me, fantasy must be about something, otherwise it's foolishness... ultimately it must be about human beings, it must be about the human condition, it must be another look at infinity, it must be another way of seeing the paradox of existence."
—George Clayton Johnson quoted in The Twilight Zone Companion

External links

• George Clayton Johnson at the Internet Movie Database
• All of us are dying, but writer George Clayton Johnson is still living it up (interview)
• Part 1 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 2 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 3 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 4 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 5 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 6 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 7 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 8 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 9 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television
• Part 10 / 10 George Clayton Johnson interview in the Archive of American Television