Dan Wilcox dead at 82: The Emmy Award-winning M*A*S*H screenwriter and producer has passed away

Emmy Award-winning screenwriter and producer Dan Wilcox has passed away at the age of 82. No cause of death has been given but his niece, Julie Merson Rothenberg told the WGA (Writers Guild of America) that he passed away at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on 14 February. 

Dan Wilcox is most renowned for writing M*A*S*H episodes and co-wrote its record-setting series finale, he also has TV credits for Fernwood/America 2-Nite and Sesame Street. He was also known for championing unions and equal rights and was a longtime former board member of the WGA, he also received the Morgan Cox Award in recognition of his work for the Guild in 2017. 

At the time, the then WGA president Howard A. Rodman said of Dan Wilcox that “he has been, in a sustained and deeply moving way, a voice for the voiceless.” Howard also said that “His work, at once passionate and effective, has been on behalf of those who might otherwise lack the power to make themselves fully heard.”

Dan Wilcox began his career writing for the CBS children’s show Captain Kangaroo, he was born in New York City on the 17 April, 1941. His mother, Mildred was a journalist and playwright and his father Phillip was an engineer. Deadline reported that “Wilcox went on to land work on such 1970s series as What's Happening!!Norman Lear’s Good Times and PBS’ Sesame Street He won an Emmy for the latter in 1970 and it was the first of five career Emmy nominations.”

His longtime writing partner was Thad Mumford and the pair joined the Season 8 writing team for M*A*S*H, which starred Alan Alda and Mike Farrell. Dan Wilcox went on to co-write the series finale of the show, which was entitled, ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,’ it aired in February 1983 and attracted more than 105 million viewers.

Dan Wilcox is survived by his wife, actress Leslie Easterbrook who starred as the training instructor Debbie Callahan in the Police Academy films), his sister Nina and nieces Julie and Wendy. Dan Wilcox also taught screenwriting classes at Arizona State University.