(March 27, 1923–March 28, 2014): American playwright and screenwriter, a veteran of the 1960s Batman TV series, who penned Never Say Never Again. Born in Mount Kisco, New York, Semple made his feature film writing debut on The Honeymoon Machine (1961), a Steve McQueen service comedy that costarred Brigid Bazlen (How the West Was Won) and was based on Semple’s stage play. His other feature credits include Fathom (1967); Pretty Poison (1968); The Sporting Club (1971); Papillon (1973), again starring Steve McQueen; The Super Cops (1974); The Parallax View (1974); Three Days of the Condor (1975); The Drowning Pool (1976), cowritten with Tracy Keenan Wynn and Walter Hill; and King Kong (1976).

In his later years, Semple cohosted a film review show on YouTube with former studio executive turned producer Marcia Nasatir titled Reel Geezers. He also revealed that, back in the 1950s, he worked with actor/producer Gregory Ratoff when the latter owned the feature film rights to Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. According to Semple, Ratoff was actually developing the project for actress Susan Hayward to play a female Bond.[1]

[1] Steven Gaydos, “Jane Bond? Scribe’s-Eye View of 007 Pic Birth,” Variety, May 11, 2012.