Variety reports that film and television writer Jack B. Sowards died of complications of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and COPD on 8 July 2007. Born 18 March 1929 in Texarkana, Arkansas, he was perhaps best known for his screenplay Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Sowards joined the Marines in 1947 and then studied theater at the University of Texas, Austin. He moved to Hollywood in 1954 to pursue a career in acting and found a few smaller roles. Then he turned to writing in the 1960s, and found more work.
In addition to work as a writer/story editor on series such Bonanza and The Streets of San Francisco, he wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Where Silence Has Lease” (1988).
In his later years, he taught screenwriting through UCLA’s graduate program. He is survived by three daughters, a son, two granddaughters, and a sister.