Hank Searl obit

Henry Searls Obituary

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August 10, 1922 - February 17, 2017 Henry Hunt (Hank) Searls Jr., 94, retired naval officer and author, died of natural causes on February 17 in Gig Harbor, Washington. His wife of 57 years, Berna Ann (Bunny) Searls, was at his side. Hank is survived by his wife Berna Ann Cooper Searls of Gig Harbor, and his children Courtney Carroll Searls-Ridge of Seattle, Henry Hunt Searls, III of Everett, WA and Peter Franklin Searls of Bellevue, WA. Hank's ashes will be interred at the US Naval Academy at a later date. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, WA.

An author and screenwriter. His novels included The Crowded Sky (1960), which was adapted as the 1960 movie of the same name; The Pilgrim Project (1964), which was adapted as the 1968 movie Countdown; and The Penetrators (1965, writing as Anthony Gray). Searls also wrote the novelizations for the movies Jaws 2 (1978) featuring Roy Scheider and Murray Hamilton, and Jaws: The Revenge (1987) featuring Michael Caine and Lorraine Gary.

Hank Searls' 1960 novel, The Crowded Sky, was made that same year into a feature movie featuring Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, Anne Francis, and Troy Donahue.

 

Set in the USAF's Strategic Air Command, the 1965 novel The Penetrators is the story of a maverick Royal Air Force exchange officer who commands a mock Avro Vulcan bomber attack on the USA. Replete with quotes from Curtis LeMay, Robert S McNamara and other officials of the Cold War era, The Penetrators was the kind of detailed, political-military thriller which later became characteristic of Tom Clancy. The book also strongly argued the case for the US's crewed long-range bomber force, which was then in danger of being phased out in favour of ICBMs.

 

Searls' novel The Pilgrim Project was adapted as the 1968 Robert Altman movie Countdown, which featured Robert Duvall and James Caan.

 

Based on his own novel of the same title, Searls wrote the screenplay for the 1978 Angie Dickinson television movie Overboard. He wrote a biography of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. The Lost Prince: Young Joe, The Forgotten Kennedy. This became the basis of the 1977 television film Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy, with Peter Strauss in the title role.

 

Searls' other military and aviation-themed novels included: The Astronaut (1962), Pentagon (1971), Hero Ship (1969), The Big X (1959), and Altitude Zero (1991). His other writings were Firewind (1981), Sounding (1982), Blood Song (1984), Kataki (1987), and The Adventures of Mike Blair (1988). He also wrote the novelizations of the movies Jaws 2 in 1978 and Jaws: The Revenge in 1987.

 

In the book Console Wars (2014) by Blake Harris, the popular Sega Genesis game Ecco the Dolphin (1992) is said to be inspired by Searls' novel "Sounding", though the reference is anonymized. Ed Annunziata, designer of Ecco and its sequel, allegedly thought of the concept for the game while reading the novel.

Writer

Angie Dickinson in Overboard (1978)

Overboard

6.2

TV Movie

novel

teleplay

1978

 

Wheels (1978)

Wheels

6.5

TV Mini Series

writer

1978

 

Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy (1977)

Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy

7.8

TV Movie

biography The Lost Prince: Young Joe, The Forgotten Kennedy

1977

 

The Counterfeit Green

TV Movie

written by

1972

 

O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971)

O'Hara, U.S. Treasury

7.3

TV Series

writer

1971

1 episode

 

The Felony Squad (1966)

The Felony Squad

7.4

TV Series

story

writer

1966–1969

2 episodes

 

James Caan, Joanna Moore, and Bobby Riha in Countdown (1967)

Countdown

5.9

novel "The Pilgrim Project"

1967

 

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963)

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre

7.4

TV Series

written by

1965

1 episode

 

Convoy (1965)

Convoy

7.4

TV Series

writer

1965

1 episode

 

Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963)

Kraft Suspense Theatre

7.7

TV Series

teleplay (as Henry Searls)

1965

1 episode

 

David Janssen in The Fugitive (1963)

The Fugitive

8.1

TV Series

written by

1963

2 episodes

 

Leslie Nielsen, John Beradino, John Clarke, and Greg Roman in The New Breed (1961)

The New Breed

7.6

TV Series

creator

written by

1961–1962

36 episodes

 

Benita Evans in CBS Repertoire Workshop (1960)

CBS Repertoire Workshop

TV Series

story

1960

1 episode

 

The Crowded Sky (1960)

The Crowded Sky

5.7

novel

1960