Ib Melchior

Novelist, short-story writer, director, producer, and screenwriter -- via the Hollywood Reporter. A fascinating life. He was the son of famed Danish heldentenor Lauritz Melchior. He was a decorated counterintelligence officer in World War II; he helped liberate the Flossenburg concentration camp, discovered a Nazi gold hoard, and captured a German Werwolf unit.

He wrote many adventure novels, but it's his work in film that made the biggest impact. After some work in American television, he started writing sci-fi scripts -- "The Angry Red Planet," "Robinson Crusoe on Mars," "Reptilicus," "Journey to the Seventh Planet," and "The Time Travelers." He also wrote the English translation of Bava's "Planet of the Vampires."

Most importantly, his story "The Racer" became the film "Death Race 2000"; his idea for a "Space Family Robinson" was stolen by Irwin Allen and became "Lost in Space."

While many of his films may be regarded as cheesy, Melchior's imagination fueled my own as a child. These crude space operas and monster stories, many of them adaptations of classic literary sources, helped give sci-fi some momentum as it moved from being merely "kiddie fare" to a gerne that could handle adult, complex themes.