Name Roland Kibbee | Role Screenwriter | |
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Died August 5, 1984, Encino, Los Angeles, California, United States Children Jefferson Kibbee, Lincoln Kibbee, Meredith Kibbee Awards Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series Nominations Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series Movies and TV shows The Midnight Man, It Takes a Thief, The Appaloosa, Top Secret Affair, The Deputy Similar People Dean Hargrove, Danny Arnold, Bill Lancaster, Susan Clark, Malachi Throne | ||
Roland Kibbee (15 February 1914 in Monongahela, Pennsylvania – 5 August 1984 in Encino, California) was an American screenwriter and producer.
Works
Kibbee began his career writing for radio in 1931, working with Jack Lescoulie, and later collaborated with Nat Hiken, writing for the series The Grouch Club, which starred Lescoulie. After this, Kibbee worked on Fred Allen's staff and wrote for Groucho Marx, before serving in the US Air Force during World War II. Following his military service, he collaborated with Joseph Fields to write the screenplay for the Marx Brothers 1946 film A Night in Casablanca.
He frequently worked on films for Burt Lancaster, including The Crimson Pirate (1952), Vera Cruz (1954), The Devil's Disciple (1959), and Valdez Is Coming (1971). For a time they teamed to form "Norlan Productions". Together they wrote, produced and directed The Midnight Man (1974).
Some of his best-known films were A Night in Casablanca (1946), The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Appaloosa (1966) and Valdez Is Coming (1971).
Prominent TV producer and writer Norman Lear also acknowledged that while he would sometimes do the opening monologues for The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, Kibbee was in fact the show's main writer. In a 2015 interview with Variety, Lear credited both Kibbee and Hiken as his two mentors.
He also wrote for TV shows, among them The Virginian, It Takes a Thief (which he created) and Columbo.
Kibbee won Emmy awards for his work on the short-lived 1961 series The Bob Newhart Show, Columbo and Barney Miller.