American playwright, screenwriter and mystery novelist. The son of Russian and Polish immigrants, he was educated at City College New York and Brooklyn College. He began his career as a disc jockey, then joined a casting agency in Manhattan. He later opened his own agency with an office at the Plaza Hotel. He was based in Britain from the mid-1950s, writing scripts for thrillers and horror films, as well as television. His 1967 mystery novel "A Queer Kind of Death" created something of a stir at the time in that it featured a black detective who spoke jive, drove a Jaguar and was openly gay.
