Shimon Wincelberg (26 September 1924 – 29 September 2004) was a television writer and Broadway

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

. He wrote the 1959 Broadway play ''Kataki'' starring

Sessue Hayakawa , known professionally as , was a Japanese actor and a matinée idol. He was a popular star in Hollywood during the silent film era of the 1910s and early 1920s. Hayakawa was the first actor of Asian descent to achieve stardom as a leading man ...

and Ben Piazza.

Early life

Wincelberg was born to parents from Poland in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. His family fled

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, arriving in the United States in 1938.

Career

Wincelberg began his career as a writer in 1953 when he sold his first short story. He continued to write stories for a variety of publications including ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...

'', ''The'' ''New Yorker'', and '' Punch''. He wrote many plays, including the Broadway play ''Kataki'', which was based on his own experience in Army intelligence during World War II. He wrote another play in 1962 called '' Windows of Heaven'' which premiered at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater. He also wrote books, some with his wife Anita, who was also a writer. He also wrote many television shows during the 1960s and 1970s, often using

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

s such as "Simon Wincelberg", "Simon Winvelberg", "S. Bar-David", and "Shimon Bar-David", meaning "Shimon son of David" in Hebrew. He invented the Vulcan Mindmeld in the script for "

Dagger of the Mind "Dagger of the Mind" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by Shimon Wincelberg (under the pen name "S. Bar-David") and directed by Vincent McEveety, it first aired ...

", which aired during the first season of

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

Jewish identity

Wincelberg was a mentor for

Orthodox Jews Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tr ...

working in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. His scripts often included Jewish themes, and depicted Jewish rituals and Jewish religious law with accuracy.

Filmography

He wrote or co-wrote over 100 scripts for episodes of the following television series:

Films

Television

Death

Wincelberg died on 19 September 2004 of an undisclosed illness in a nursing home in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

at the age of 80.

References

External links

* 1924 births 2004 deaths American people of German-Jewish descent American television writers American male television writers German Orthodox Jews 20th-century German male writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters German emigrants to the United States {{US-screen-writer-1920s-stub