Howard Berk obit

Howard Berk, Screenwriter for Film and Television, Dies at 91

He worked on 'Columbo,' 'Mission: Impossible,' 'McMillan & Wife' and the Gene Hackman film 'Target.' 

He was not on the list.

Howard Berk, who wrote the screenplay for the 1985 Gene Hackman film Target and penned episodes for Columbo, Mission: Impossible and McMillan & Wife, died Sunday of natural causes in Los Angeles, his son said. He was 91.

Berk also wrote for Matinee Theatre, The Rockford Files, Get Christie Love!, Mrs. Columbo, The Fall Guy and The New Mike Hammer.

A longtime Distinguished Writer in Residence and professor at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., where he studied journalism as a youngster, Berk most recently published a National Geographic essay, “My Lunch With Hemingway,” which recounted a meeting he had with Ernest Hemingway in 1950s Cuba

At the time, Berk was a reporter for the newspaper The Havana Herald. He also worked for papers in the U.S. and for the Associated Press and wrote four fiction novels.

Survivors include his son Peter, brother Robert, grandchildren Jordan and Daniel and daughter-in-law Diane.

Howard Berk was born on July 22, 1924 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Columbo (1971), Target (1985) and Mission: Impossible (1966). He died on March 27, 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

He lied about how old he was so he could join the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943. Berk, then a 16-year-old just out of high school in Brookline, Massachusetts, he already had a pilot's license and wound up a bomber pilot in the China-Burma-India Theater. He carries another card that identifies him as a lifetime member of the Hump Pilots Association, the ''Hump'' being the Himalayas, over which Berk and other allied pilots flew supplies to forces battling the Japanese.

Berk worked as a reporter for The Havana Herald in Cuba in the 1950s. He also worked for the Associated Press. He taught at his alma mater, the University of Georgia, and he authored four novels.

Berk wrote several episodes of television series Columbo, Mission: Impossible, and McMillan & Wife. He also wrote films including the 1985 movie Target, starring Gene Hackman and directed by Arthur Penn.

 

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1975

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1975

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1975

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The Contender (1980)

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1980

 

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executive script consultant

1983–1984

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executive story consultant

1983

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1979

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1970