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

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. His family fled

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, arriving in the United States in the late 1930s.

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'', ''The'' ''New Yorker'', and ''

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''. 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 or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

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", which aired during the first season of Star Trek.

Jewish identity

Wincelberg was a mentor for Orthodox Jews working in 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

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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-stub