Name Ferdinand Leon | ||
Ferdinand Leon (born 1922) was an African American writer who wrote for television shows.
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Early life
Ferdinand Leon was born on January 29, 1922 in Louisiana, New Orland to Ferdinand Leon Sr. and Ida Leon. He attended school in Louisiana with his four sisters. During his youth, Ferdinand lived in New Orleans and Los Angeles.
Career
Ferdinand Leon was an African American writer who wrote for television shows in the 1970s. He wrote storylines, screenplays, and teleplays.
Upon attending African American writing classes conducted by Earl Barret and Bob Goodwin, Leon was recognized as a 'promising student' and gained enough recognition to be hired as a freelance writer.
Among his most noted work was writing for the groundbreaking television show Julia (TV Series). He was one of multiple African American writers for the show alongside Robert Goodwin, Harry Dolan, and Gene Boland. For "Julia," Leon wrote 8 episodes between 1968 and 1970, one of which was a teleplay. These episodes included; Gone with the Whim (1970), The Prisoner of Brenda (1970), Love is a Many Slighted Thing (1969), I Thought I Saw a Two Timer (1969), Sticks and Stones Can Break My Pizza (1969), The One and Only, Genuine, Original, Family Uncle (1968), and Designers Don't Always Have Designs (1968). Leon is mentioned in Hal Kanter's (producer for "Julia') autobiography as a great literate writer.
In the past, Leon also wrote for two other shows in his television career. He contributed one episode to "Love, American Style" in 1970; "Love and the Safely Married Man/Love and the Uncoupled Coupled Couple/Love and the Many Married Couple." He also contributed one episode to "The Partners" in 1971; "How Many Carats in a Grapefruit".
More recently, Leon has been published as a contributor in the book "Modern Drama Vol.2 (1968): 87-96. His work was entitled, "Time, Fantasy, and Reality in Night of the Iguana". It is published as a review of Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III's screenplay, "The Night of the Iguana." He now teaches foreign languages in the Los Angeles City Schools, and still writes minimally for television. In addition to his review of Tennessee Williams' work, Leon has also completed a book on the dramatic uses of time in Williams' plays, which was scheduled to be published in 2014.