William Self dead at 89

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Prolific television producer William Self died last week at age 89 after suffering a heart attack earlier in the month. His long run of successful series ranged from “Batman” to “M*A*S*H.”


Self was originally a movie actor, but moved behind the camera in the 1950s. One of his early successes was producing the pilot for Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” for CBS. 20th Century Fox Television hired him away at the end of the decade and he began overseeing a long string of successes. He was so successful, in fact, that he had become President of the studio by the time he left in 1974.

After a brief stint producing movies, Self returned to television in 1977 as a Vice President of CBS and head of its West Coast TV and movie production. He left CBS in 1985 and established William Self Productions. His last production was the TV film “Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter’s End,” in 1999 for The Hallmark Channel.