RODDENBERRY, GENE

born Aug. 19, 1921, El Paso, Texas, U.S. died Oct. 24, 1991, Santa Monica, Calif. byname of Eugene Wesley Roddenberry American writer and television and film producer, creator and executive producer of the popular science-fiction television series Star Trek (196669), which spawned other television series and a string of motion pictures. Roddenberry briefly attended Los Angeles City College, flew B-17 bombers during World War II, and was an airline pilot (194549) and a sergeant on the Los Angeles police force (194953). He then became a freelance television writer and contributed scripts through 1962 to several network programs, including Dragnet, Highway Patrol, Dr. Kildare, and Have GunWill Travel. In 1964 he began trying to sell the idea of Star Trek to producers, but not until Sept. 8, 1966, did the first episode debut on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network. The series was repeatedly threatened with cancellation, but the program's ardent followers, known as Trekkies, formed fan clubs and initiated letter-writing campaigns to keep the series alive until Sept. 2, 1969. Roddenberry's creation of the space vehicle, or starship, Enterprise and its multiracial, even multiplanetary, crew presented an optimistic view of life in the future, in the 23rd century. Star Trek chronicled the adventures of a cast of characters headed by Captain James Kirk, Mr. Spock, and other officers of the Enterprise. The 79 episodes of the series traced the crew's mission to seek out new life and new civilizations; along the way they encountered different planetary environments and a variety of intelligent life forms, from gaseous beings to humanoids. With the success of Star Trek in syndication, Roddenberry went to work as producer on Star TrekThe Motion Picture, which was released in 1979. It was followed by seven more Star Trek motion pictures, with Roddenberry serving as executive consultant on the first three. Beginning in 1987, he was also executive producer of the sequel television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek eventually spawned two more television series and an animated series. Roddenberry also wrote Star TrekThe Motion Picture: A Novel (1979).