Barely a week after the passing of Leonard Nimoy, another Star Trek legend has passed away. Earlier today, writer and producer Harve Bennett died. He was 84 years old.
Born Harve Bennett Fischman on August 17, 1930, Bennett began his long career in Hollywood by developing The Mod Squad for television alongside Tony Barrett and Sammy Hess for producer Aaron Spelling. From there, Bennett served as an executive producer for The Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff, The Bionic Woman during the ‘70s. Bennett also performed the famous voiceover for the opening narration of The Six Million Dollar Man.
Following the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Bennett was hired to oversee the production of what would become Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Bennett was credited with the idea of bringing Ricardo Montalban back as Khan Noonien Singh, a role he originated in the TV series.
Bennett was credited as an executive producer on Star Trek II, and he remained with the franchise through Star Trek III and Star Trek V. Bennett even made a cameo appearance (pictured above) during Star Trek III and Star Trek V. Bennett also proposed a Star Trek film reboot that would recast Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew with younger actors during their time at Starfleet Academy. While Paramount ultimately passed on this idea, it came to fruition during the 2009 Star Trek reboot by J.J. Abrams.
After Star Trek, Bennett created the sci-fi series Time Trax, which ran for two seasons in syndication. Bennett’s last credit was as a writer and a producer of Invasion America, an animated sci-fi drama that aired in 1998 on The WB.
CraveOnline extends its condolences to Bennett’s family, friends and fans all over the world.
