Richard Matheson has always been one of my favorite writers ever. I first became a fan as a kid watching what would become my favorite show of all-time, “The Twilight Zone”. Richard penned 16 episodes and some of the most beloved were his like “Nightmare at 20,000 feet”. I then kept seeing his name whenever I looked up the writers for some of my other favorite movies like “Somewhere in Time”, “What Dreams May Come” and “Dreamer of Oz” (1990) which was about the life and times of the creator of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum starring the late John Ritter … please try to watch this one if you love SIT…. it is so magical and wonderful. I still watch it to this day whenever I want to feel inspired.
Richard was married to his sweetheart for over 60 years. He understands about love which is why his stories were so real and always had a sense of heart and humanity even though it might be a fantasy and sci-fi story. Everything he wrote was wonderful.
I also loved his books. My two favorites were “Bid Time Return” which was made into “Somewhere in Time” and “What Dreams May Come”.
Here are some other favorite things that were written by Richard:
“Miniature” which was a 1 hour episode of the Twilight Zone with Robert Duval.
“The Doll” an episode from Amazing Stories starring John Lithgow. Wonderful sweet story.
“Duel” a movie with McCloud actor who deals with truck on the highway. Directed by young Spielberg who called Matheson a legend like Asimov and Bradbury.
“I am Legend” based on his book… a remake of previous films “The Omega Man” and “Last Man On Earth”
“Trilogy of Terror” Three Fun scary stories. The one with the African doll still haunts me and my brothers!
“Enemy Within” an episode of Star Trek where Captain Kirk has a good and evil version of himself.
Do you see the versatility of his writing? Do you also see the common thread running throughout all of his work too?
What an amazing man and incredible talent
(February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013)
