Clair Huffaker (September 26, 1926 – April 3, 1990) was an American screenwriter and author of

westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

and other fiction, many of which were turned into films.

Biography

Born in

Magna, Utah Magna ( ) is a metro township in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The current population of the township stands at 29,251 according to the 2020 census, a 10.4% increase over 26,505 in 2010. History Settlement Settlement of the area beg ...

, Huffaker wrote of his childhood in ''One Time I Saw Morning Come Home''. He attended Princeton and Columbia universities and the Sorbonne in Paris. He served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in World War II and then studied in Europe before returning to America. After the war, he worked in Chicago as an assistant editor for ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' before turning to fiction.

Novels

*''Badge for a Gunfighter'' (1957) *''Rider from Thunder Mountain'' (1957) *''Cowboy'' (1958)

Novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of the screenplay *''Flaming Lance'' (filmed as ''Flaming Star'') (1958) *''Posse from Hell'' (1958) *''Guns of Rio Conchos'' (1958) *''Badman'' (filmed as ''

The War Wagon ''The War Wagon'' is a 1967 American Western heist film directed by Burt Kennedy and starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. Released by Universal Pictures, it was produced by Marvin Schwartz and adapted by Clair Huffaker from his own novel. Th ...

'') (1958) *''Seven Ways from Sundown'' (1959) *''Good Lord, You're Upside Down!'' (1963) *''Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian'' (filmed as ''

Flap Flap may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Flap'' (film), a 1970 American film * Flap, a boss character in the arcade game ''Gaiapolis'' * Flap, a minor character in the film '' Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland'' Biology and he ...

'' (1967) *''The Cowboy and the Cossack'' (1973) *''One Time I Saw Morning Come Home'' (1974) *''Clair Huffaker's Profiles of the American West'' (1976)

Screenplays

*''

Seven Ways from Sundown ''Seven Ways from Sundown'' is a 1960 American Western film directed by Harry Keller and starring Audie Murphy and Barry Sullivan. It is based on the novel of the same name by Clair Huffaker, who also wrote the script. Young cast member Teddy R ...

'' (1960) *''

Flaming Star ''Flaming Star'' is a 1960 American Western film starring Elvis Presley, Barbara Eden and Steve Forrest, based on the book ''Flaming Lance'' (1958) by Clair Huffaker. Critics agreed that Presley gave one of his best acting performances as t ...

'' (1960) *''

Posse from Hell ''Posse from Hell'' is a 1961 American Western film directed by Herbert Coleman and starring Audie Murphy and John Saxon. Plot In 1880 four escapees from death row, Crip, Leo, Chunk, and Hash ride into the town of Paradise and enter the Roseb ...

'' (1961) *'' The Comancheros'' (1961) *'' The Second Time Around'' (1961) as Cecil Dan Hansen *'' Rio Conchos'' (1964) *''

Tarzan and the Valley of Gold ''Tarzan and the Valley of Gold'' is a 1966 Eastmancolor adventure film starring Mike Henry in his debut as Tarzan. The Panavision film, produced by Sy Weintraub, written by Clair Huffaker, and directed by Robert Day, is remembered for its v ...

'' (1966) *''

'' (1967) *'' Hellfighters'' (1968) *''

100 Rifles ''100 Rifles'' is a 1969 American Western film directed by Tom Gries and starring Jim Brown, Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds. It is based on Robert MacLeod's 1966 novel ''The Californio''. The film was shot in Spain. The original music score w ...

'' (1969) *''

'' (1970) *''

The Deserter The Deserter or Deserter (s) may refer to: Film and television * ''The Deserter'' (1912 film), a silent film by Thomas H. Ince * ''The Deserter'' (1933 film), a film by Vsevolod Pudovkin * ''The Deserter'' (1971 film), a film by Burt Kennedy ...

'' (1971) from a story by himself *'' Chino'' (1973) with others Clair Huffaker also wrote scripts for television and was one of the writers on the Warner Brothers Western series '' Lawman''

References

External links

* 1926 births 1990 deaths United States Navy personnel of World War II American male screenwriters Western (genre) writers 20th-century American novelists American male novelists 20th-century American male writers People from Magna, Utah 20th-century American screenwriters {{US-novelist-1920s-stub