Name Joe Connelly Role Television scriptwriter | Shows Leave It to Beaver | |
Died February 13, 2003, Newport Beach, California, United States Children Maria Connelly, Rick Connelly, Franny Connelly, Patrick Connelly, Mandy Connelly, Jay Connelly, Karen Connelly Nominations Academy Award for Best Story, Primetime Emmy Award for Best Teleplay Writing - Half Hour or Less Movies Leave It to Beaver, Munster - Go Home!, Major Payne Similar People Hugh Beaumont, Beverley Owen, Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow, Fred Gwynne | ||
Joe Connelly (August 22, 1917 – February 13, 2003) was a television and radio scriptwriter born in New York City. He was best known for his work on Amos and Andy, Meet Mr. McNutley, Leave It To Beaver, Ichabod and Me, Bringing Up Buddy, and The Munsters, along with his co-writer Bob Mosher who hails from Auburn, New York.
Connelly had a stint in the merchant marines before landing a job at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York City, where he met Mosher, a fellow copywriter. Mosher left the agency in 1942 and moved to Hollywood to write for the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy radio show. Connelly soon followed him. In the mid-1940s, after writing for the Frank Morgan and Phil Harris radio shows, they began a 12-year run writing for Amos and Andy including the early 1950s TV version of the popular radio show. Their first solo effort in television was developing a short-lived anthology series for actor Ray Milland, an experience that taught them, Connelly said, to focus their writing instead on "things we know."
Connelly earned an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story for "The Private War of Major Benson," a 1955 comedy that starred Charlton Heston as a hard-nosed Army major who takes command of the ROTC program at a children's academy that was inspired by an incident Connelly witnessed while driving one of his sons to parochial school.
Leave It to Beaver took their dictum of writing about "things we know" to a new level. Connelly, the father of seven children, and Mosher, the father of two, had to look no further than their own homes for inspiration. Connelly's 14-year-old son, Jay, served as the model for Beaver's older brother, Wally; and Connelly's 8-year-old son, Ricky, was the inspiration for Beaver, the nickname of one of Connelly's merchant marine shipmates. Connelly reportedly followed his children around with a pad of paper writing down funny situations and lines that were later used in the show.
Connelly is buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery. He died of a stroke while in the Motion Picture Country Home nursing home in Newport Beach, California after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for years. Connelly outlived both of his wives, Kathryn and Ann and was survived by his 7 children, 12 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.