Brian Clemens (1931-2015)

Brian Clemens

Brian Clemens

English screenwriter and TV producer Brian Clemens, who wrote the pilots for The Avengers and Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), died January 10.

He was deeply associated with the success of The Avengers (1961-1969) as its script editor, associate producer and main scriptwriter. His company also created a revival, The New Avengers (1976-1977).

Such a prolific writer that some of his scripts were credited to a pseudonym, Clemens worked on many TV series with genre connections — The Invisible Man (1958-1959), Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-1967), Thriller (1973-1976), Darkroom (1981-1982), Bugs (1995-1999) and Highlander: The Series.

He also wrote feature films – Hammer’s Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) and Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (1974), also The Tell-Tale Heart (1960), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), The Watcher in the Woods (1980), and Highlander II: The Quickening (1991).

Clemens was related to Mark Twain/Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a fact commemorated in the names of his two sons, Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens and George Langhorne Clemens.

[Thanks to James H. Burns for the head’s up.]