Martin Ragaway
Martin Ragaway | |
---|---|
Born | Brooklyn,New York, U.S. | January 29, 1923
Died | April 20, 1989 Los Angeles,California, U.S. | (aged 66)
Resting place | Mount Sinai Memorial Park,Los Angeles[1] |
Occupation | comedy writer |
Years active | 1949–1984 |
Martin Ragaway(January 29, 1923 – April 20, 1989) was an American comedy writer.
Career
[edit]Ragaway's early credits include theAbbott and Costelloradio program in the late 1940s. Along withLeonard Stern,he created the "Sam Shovel" spoofs for the show. This led to screenwriting the Abbott and Costello filmsAfrica Screams(1949, uncredited),Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion(1950), andLost in Alaska(1952). Ragaway and Stern also wrote twoMa and Pa Kettlemovies: 1950'sMa and Pa Kettle Go to Town,for which they penned the story and screenplay, and 1952'sMa and Pa Kettle At the Fair.They also wroteThe Milkman(1952) for Donald O'Connor.
On television, Ragaway shared an Emmy for the 1960–61 season of "The Red Skelton Show", and won Writer's Guild Awards for a 1965 episode ofThe Dick Van Dyke Show( "My Husband is the Best One" ) and the 1968 special, "Alan King's Wonderful World of Aggravation."[2]
He also scripted episodes ofGet Smart,The Jerry Lewis Show,The Brady Bunch,The Bill Cosby Show,Here's Lucy,I Dream of Jeannie,The Partridge Family,The Odd Couple,Diff'rent Strokes,andThe Facts of Life.
In the late 1970s, Ragaway worked on severalDean Martin Celebrity Roastsand the annual Country Music Association awards shows. Among his last credits was the short-livedBilly Crystal Comedy Hour(1982).
References
[edit]- ^Los Angeles Times
- ^Variety;Apr 26, 1989): 220-222.
External links
[edit]
- American male screenwriters
- Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
- Primetime Emmy Award winners
- Writers from Brooklyn
- Screenwriters from New York City
- 1923 births
- 1989 deaths
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American screenwriters
- Writers Guild of America Award winners
- American screenwriter stubs, 1920s birth stubs