William Link, co-creator of TV’s ‘Columbo,’ ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ dies at 87
Updated Dec 30, 2020;
LOS ANGELES (AP) William Link, who co-created the hit series “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote” and made 1970s and ’80s TV movies about social issues then largely shunned by television, has died. He was 87.
Link died of congestive heart failure Sunday in Los Angeles, his wife of more than 40 years, Margery Nelson, said in a statement Tuesday.
The family helped Link mark his Dec. 15 birthday by playing YouTube videos of interviews in which he recounted his long career, said his niece, Amy Salko Robertson.
“He loved it. It was the best birthday present we could have given him,” she said.
William Link (far left) at his induction into the TV Academy s Hall of Fame in 1995.
Link and writing partner Richard Levinson also collaborated on Mannix, Ellery Queen and several TV movies, winning two Emmys over the course of their partnership.
William Link, the co-creator of TV series
Columbo and
Murder, She Wrote, has died. The two-time Emmy winner died Sunday in Los Angeles of congestive heart failure. He was 87.
Link and his writing and producing partner, Richard Levinson, collaborated on
Columbo, Mannix, Ellery Queen, Murder, She Wrote and several other series and television movies. The pair won two Emmys for writing for the 1970 TV movie