Don Ettlinger Biography

With a career spanning over 13 years in Hollywood, and credits ranging from TV soap operas to Broadway musicals, Don Ettlinger's versatile writing abilities led him to work with some of the best in the business. A native of Detroit, Ettlinger began his career as one of the youngest contract writers on the 20th Century Fox lot. After his first film assignment, The Lady Escapes (1937), Ettlinger frequently collaborated with writer Karl Tunberg on such Shirley Temple films as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) and Young People (1940). While serving in the U.S. Army during WWII, he continued his career by making Army training and propaganda films. In the early '50s, after pitching a show titled "Our Miss Booth" to CBS execs and being turned down, Ettlinger sued the studio following their success with the suspiciously titled (as well as suspiciously themed) Our Miss Brooks, for which he received a comfortable settlement. Ettlinger would go on to write scripts for such TV programs as Kraft Television Theater, Studio One, and The Secret Storm. Don Ettlinger died from complications following chemotherapy on August 7, 2000, at the age of 86. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi