George Clayton Johnson shares the parthenon of great writers with such visionaries as Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury and Gene Roddenberry.
George Clayton Johnson was born on July 29, 1929 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Logan's Run (1976), Ocean's Eight (2018) and Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He was married to Lola Brownstein. He died on December 25, 2015 in North Hills, California, USA.
Upon deciding that he wanted to become a writer, Johnson joined a circle of Southern California science-fiction writers that included William F. Nolan, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury.
Johnson was a strong advocate for the legalization of marijuana. He reputedly smoked weed all day, every day, well into his 80's.
At the age of fourteen, the courts removed him to a state orphanage in Casper, Wyoming. He served in the Army, then studied drafting in college. He eventually moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a draftsman for the Lockheed aviation company while moonlighting as a writer. Soon after quitting his day job to pursue writing full-time, he met a Twilight Zone writer, Charles Beaumont, who introduced him to the show's creator, Rod Serling.
His writing credits include Alfred Hitchcock Presents , Ocean's 11 (1960), 5 episodes of The Twilight Zone, the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Kung Fu , Twilight Zone: The Movie ( second segment), among many others. A remake of “Logna’s Run” is rumored to be in pre-production with Carl Rinsch (47 Ronin) directing.
"I'm a free man. I don't wear anybody's collar. I'm not obliged to smile if I don't want to. That gives me a lot of perverse pride -- I really am a person who could stop doing what I'm doing right now, go off to Ceylon tomorrow and live among the fishermen. I make a living without having a job; I don't cater to anybody. I believe that's the hardest thing to achieve in this world -- any kind of autonomy, any kind of independence, any kind of freedom. So, I'm very, very proud of the fact that I'm an independent."
George Clayton Johnson talks about the early days as a struggling writer 1957, courtesy Marshall Berle.