Biography

Michael Norell was born in Wallace, Idaho but his family moved around as his father was a career Army man who reached the rank of Brigadier General. He spent a good deal of his youth in Arlington, Virginia, then the family went overseas to Tokyo, Japan while his father was stationed in Korea during the war there. Returning to the States he attended his junior year of high school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, then finished up at Falls Church High School (Falls Church, Virginia), where he acted in several school plays.

After attending Washington and Lee University, where he studied Journalism and acted in several school plays, he entered the Army where he spent the next five years and reached the rank of Captain. After the Army he became a reporter and worked for the Richmond Times Dispatch in Richmond, Virginia. He eventually found his way to New York to work as an actor full time. After several years on the New York stage he ventured to Hollywood and after only six months there he won the role of Captain Hank Stanley on the hit action series, Emergency! (1972).

After Emergency! (1972), Norell turned to television writing (having written four episodes of Emergency! (1972)) and wrote for such shows as The Love Boat (1977), Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998), Nash Bridges (1996), and The Magnificent Seven (1998), among others. He contributed to such made-for-TV movies as Doomsday Rock (1997), The Diamond Fleece (1992) Three on a Date (1978), The Cover Girl and the Cop (1989), Pals (1987), Barnum (1986), and The Incident (1990) (for which he was nominated for an Emmy). He also created and executive produced the short-lived series Aloha Paradise (1981).