Gene L. Coon
Born	Eugene Lee Coon (1924-01-07)January 7, 1924 Beatrice, Nebraska
Died	July 8, 1973(1973-07-08) (aged 49) Los Angeles, California
Pen name	Lee Cronin
Occupation	Screenwriter, television producer
Nationality	American

Eugene Lee Coon (January 7, 1924 – July 8, 1973) was an American screenwriter, television producer, and novelist. He is best remembered for his work on the original Star Trek as a screenwriter, story editor, and showrunner from the middle of the series' first season to the middle of the second. Along with series creator Gene Roddenberry, Coon is given credit for the show's idealistic tone and for creating several key story and world-building elements that would become important parts of the ongoing franchise.^[1]

Life and career

The eldest son of U.S. Army Sgt. Merle Jack "Pug" Coon and decorator Erma Gay Noakes, Eugene Lee Coon was born in Beatrice, Nebraska, on January 7, 1924. At four years of age, young Gene showed talent, singing on the radio at WOAW-AM in Omaha. He knew 24 songs, including one in French and one in German. In his youth, Coon was a member of the Gage County 4-H Club and the Boy Scouts of America. He later attended Omaha Technical High School and participated in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, also playing in the school band. During this time, he was also a teenaged newscaster for KWBE (AM) in Beatrice. Coon later moved, with his parents and younger brothers, Merle Jack Coon Jr. and Bloise Newell Coon, to Glendale, California. Another brother died at 10 years old when they still lived in Beatrice. His father found employment there working with poultry, and Coon transferred to Glendale High School.

During World War II, Coon served stateside in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946. Thereafter, he remained in the Marines as a reservist while studying radio communications at Glendale Junior College, where he performed in a production of The Night of January 16th. Following additional studies at the University of Iowa, he returned to active duty during the Korean War in 1950. He received additional training as a war reporter, and ran a pharmacy and built houses. He wrote about many of his experiences in the novels Meanwhile Back at the Front and The Short End of the Stick.

Upon his demobilization in 1952, Coon found work first as a radio newscaster before turning to freelance writing under the mentorship of Los Angeles Times reporter Gene Sherman. From 1954 to 1959, Coon operated a pharmacy at the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and North Ardmore Avenue; during this period, Sherman covered his pharmacy exploits in the page 2 "Cityside" column for the newspaper. Sherman also allowed Coon to have a guest spot promoting Meanwhile Back at the Front in the column Sherman wrote for The Farmer's Market, using the pen name Dick Kidson.

Beginning in 1956, Coon was primarily involved in scripting teleplays for popular Western and action television shows, including Dragnet (1951), Wagon Train (1957), Maverick (1957), and Bonanza (1959). At Universal in the early 1960s, he turned McHale's Navy (1962) from a one-hour drama into a successful 30-minute sitcom. Together with the writer Les Colodny, Coon floated the idea for The Munsters (1964), as a satirical take on The Donna Reed Show (1958), to MCA chairman Lew Wasserman. The result of this last, whose format was worked out by Allan Burns and Chris Hayward and whose characters and situations were developed by Norm Liebman and Ed Haas, was yet another hit show, under the creative auspices of Joe Connelly and Bob Mosher. MCA, then the parent company of Universal Studios, produced the show through its Revue TV and Kayro-Vue Productions banners.

Death and tributes

A chain smoker of cigarillos for most of his life, the man whom fellow writer/producer Glen A. Larson referred to as "the spirit and soul of Star Trek", died in July 1973 of lung and throat cancer at the age of 49, just one week after being diagnosed. A possible cause of Coon’s cancer was radiation from Nevada bomb testing sites he visited with his mentor Gene Sherman and his first wife Joy in the 1950s.

D. C. Fontana dedicated her novelization of The Questor Tapes to him. William Shatner dedicated a chapter in his 1993 memoir Star Trek Memories to him, titled "The Unsung Hero", in which he attributed many aspects of Star Trek to him. Leonard Nimoy did the same in his own memoir (I Am Spock), as did Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman with Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. In the closing credits of the 1999 Star Trek tribute film Free Enterprise, Gene Coon is referred to as "The Forgotten Gene" in recognition of his contributions to Star Trek, as well as his professional collaboration and personal relationship with his collaborator, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

Works

See also

•  Biography portal

References

External links

• Gene L. Coon at IMDb
• Gene L. Coon at Memory Alpha