A.J. Carothers, 75; wrote for film, TV
LOS ANGELES -- A.J. Carothers, a movie and television screenwriter whose flair for comedy was apparent in such films as "The Secret of My Success," starring Michael J. Fox, and "The Happiest Millionaire," starring Fred MacMurray, has died. He was 75.
Mr. Carothers died of cancer Monday at his home in Los Angeles, his son Andrew said.
Mr. Carothers began his career in television in the late 1940s as a story editor for "Studio One."
He went on to become an associate producer for "Playhouse 90" and, later, "
In the 1960s, he wrote some of his earliest scripts for television, including episodes of "My Three Sons," with MacMurray as a widower raising his children.
Later in his career, Mr. Carothers created several television series. One of them, "Goodnight, Beantown," starred Mariette Hartley and Bill Bixby as Boston news anchors who were romantically attached. The show debuted in 1983 and aired for one year.
Mr. Carothers was born in Houston on Oct. 22, 1931, and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, before he launched his career.
He married Caryl Volkmann in 1959. The couple had three sons.
Through most of the 1960s, Mr. Carothers was a contract writer for
In "The Happiest Millionaire" (1967), MacMurray played a rich eccentric. The next year Mr. Carothers wrote "Never a Dull Moment," also for Disney, starring Dick Van Dyke as an inept actor who accidentally gets involved with organized crime.
In the 1980s, Mr. Carothers wrote the story and co wrote the screenplay for "The Secret of My Success," starring Fox and Helen Slater, as well as the screenplay for "Hero at Large" starring John Ritter and Anne Archer.
He wrote the book for "Busker Alley," a stage musical featuring Tommy Tune that toured nationally in the mid-1990s.
He leaves his wife; three sons, Cameron and Christopher of Los Angeles and Andrew of San Francisco; a brother; a sister; and four grandchildren.
